Veterinary Clinical Medicine-I (General and Systemic)

LEUKEMIA COMPLEX

• Leukemia is a neoplastic disease involving one or more of the cell types of the hematopoietic tissues.
• Leukemia results from a failure to maintain an orderly differentiation from the stem cell to a definitive mature cell. This leads to a non-steady state of cell proliferation.
• Leukemia may be induced by the following:
  • Viruses such as RNA or DNA type
• The C-type oncornavirus (RNA) in the cat population may make the cat uniquely susceptible to leukemia development at periods when regeneration of bone marrow cells is taking place; such as during recovery from panleukemia and hemabartonella felis infections. Immature cells or young cells are more susceptible to leukemogenic effects.
• Exposure to X-rays The two general classifications of hematopoietic malignancy are lymphoproliferative and myelopro-liferative disorders.
• Autoantibodies against RBCs, often secondary to drugs, vaccines, infectious agents