Interrelationship of immunologic characteristics, proliferation pattern, and prednisone sensitivity in acute lymphoblastic leukemia of childhood.

In children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) the effect of prednisone therapy on the cell-cycle phase distribution of leukemic bone marrow cells was determined with pulse cytophotometry at the time of diagnosis. Also, the interrelationship with the presence of the sheep erythrocyte receptor as a marker for T cells was investigated. In 17 or 21 patients prednisone treatment caused a decrease in the percentage of cells in the S+G2+M phases. In 11 of 12 adult patients with ALL the same result was obtained. In a group of 31 children with ALL, 6 cases of T-cell ALL occurred in combination with intermediate or high WBC counts. The 3 patients with the highest E-rosetting percentages had rather high proportions of bone marrow cells in the S+G2+M phases. No correlation could be established between the WBC count or the E-rosetting percentage and the chance for complete remission.