What is the relationship and difference between leukemia and lymphoma? After reading the pathology, especially acute lymphoblastic leukemia or lymphoma, I feel like the whole thing is messed up? Why is it that in acute leukemia: leukocytes are increased in the blood picture, but the bone marrow picture shows a decrease in the three lines, which is not a bit contradictory to each other?
So, what are the tips to remember the blood picture of leukemia and lymphoma? Today I’m here to talk to you.
Leukemia is usually a state in which malignant blood tumor cells appear in the bone marrow and peripheral blood, and the usual standard is to have more than 20% malignant cells in the bone marrow or peripheral blood. If the malignant blood tumor cells are lymphocytes, it is called lymphocytic leukemia; if they are granulocytes, it is granulocytic leukemia; if they are NK cells, it is NK cell leukemia. Depending on the course of the disease and the degree of differentiation, it can also be classified as acute or chronic.
Lymphoma is a malignant tumor of lymphocytes, usually starting as a mass (lump, mass), which is customarily called lymphoma; however, it can also start as leukemia, which is lymphocytic leukemia. Therefore, lymphoma broadly includes lymphocytic leukemia.