Researchers Find Abnormal Cells in the Blood Years before Leukemia is Diagnosed

Researchers have shown that abnormal white blood cells can be present in patients’ blood more than six years prior to the diagnosis of a chronic form of lymphocytic leukemia. This finding may lead to a better understanding of the cellular changes that characterize the earliest stages of the disease and how it progresses. The study, led by researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, was published in the Feb. 12, 2009, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.