leukaemian.
/l(j)uːˈkiːmɪə/, U.S. /luˈkimiə/ Pathology.
A progressive disease of man and other warm-blooded animals characterized by the hyperplastic transformation and greatly increased activity of leucopoietic tissue, leading to abnormal accumulations of leucocytes (frequently of immature or abnormal form) first at the site of leucopoiesis and then (usually) in the blood and elsewhere.
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the world > health and disease > ill health > a disease > disorders of internal organs > disorders of blood > [noun] > excess of white corpuscles > leukaemia
white blood1849
leucocythaemia1852
leukaemia1855
lymphaemia1889
aleukaemic leukaemia1893
erythroleukaemia1927
1855 R. G. Mayne Expos. Lexicon Med. Sci. (1860)
1873 T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. & Morbid Anat. (ed. 2) 148 Leukæmia.
1877 L. A. Duhring Pract. Treat. Dis. Skin 503 Leucocythemic lymphadenoma, or leucæmia.
1888 P. H. Pye-Smith Fagge's Princ. & Pract. Med. (ed. 2) I. 114 Leuchæmia.
1898 T. C. Allbutt et al. Syst. Med. V. 635 Bennett gave the name leucocythæmia to the disease, whilst Virchow called it leukæmia.
1938 M. N. Richter in H. Downey Handbk. Hematol. IV. xlii. 2889 The type of cell and tissue primarily involved, the extent and distribution of infiltrations, and the presence or absence of immature cells in the peripheral blood make the lesions observed in different cases and different types of leucemia quite diverse, the only feature common to all being the increase in number of white corpuscles and their relative immaturity.
1942 C. L. Heel tr. J. Engelbreth-Holm Spontaneous & Exper. Leukæmia in Animals i. 3 While leukæmia has not been observed in the lower vertebrates, the condition is known in many kinds of birds.
1942 C. L. Heel tr. J. Engelbreth-Holm Spontaneous & Exper. Leukæmia in Animals ii. 29 Detailed information is available about leukæmia in dogs, pigs, cattle, and..rodents.
1951 New Biol. 11 97 In the treatment of leukaemia, a cancer-like disease of the white blood cells, several different classes of chemicals show some value.
1955 Sci. News Let. 19 Mar. 182/3 Leukemia, always fatal cancer of the blood, is showing up in survivors of the world's first military atom bombing.
1960 F. G. J. Hayhoe Leukaemia ii. 10 Patients with chronic leukaemias nearly always survive more than a year from the time of first symptoms, commonly for 3 to 5 years, and occasionally for very much longer.
1960 F. G. J. Hayhoe Leukaemia ii. 11 Subleukaemic and aleukaemic forms are more often encountered in the acute than in the chronic leukaemias, and they usually become fully leukaemic at a later stage in the progress of the disease.
1964 Daily Tel. 3 Jan. 13/3 A second British child suffering from leukemia..arrived with his mother in Ajaccio, Corsica, to-day for treatment with a new serum which is claimed to cure the disease.
1966 G. P. Wright & W. S. Symmers Systemic Pathol. I. iv. 181/2 Post-mortem findings in acute leukaemia... Gross enlargement of the liver and spleen, such as is common in the chronic forms of leukaemia, is unusual.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1976; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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