A phenotype workup is performed on a patient suspected to have ALL. The results indicate that some of the leukemic cells express myeloid markers, whereas others express T-cell markers. What is the most likely reason for this occurrence?
A) Two patient samples were mixed.
B) The diagnosis is bilineage acute leukemia.
C) There is a problem in the interpretation of the data.
D) The diagnosis is unilineage acute leukemia.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The expression of both myeloid and T-cell markers in the leukemic cells suggests that the patient has bilineage acute leukemia, in which the malignant cells have features of both myeloid and lymphoid lineages. This is different from unilineage acute leukemia, in which the malignant cells only express markers of one particular lineage. The presence of both types of markers is unlikely to be due to mixing of patient samples or interpretation errors.

A Phenotype Workup Is Performed on a Patient Suspected to Have