Acute lymphocytic leukemia: correlation of clinical features with immunocytochemical classification

Deep learning-based light scattering microfluidic cytometry for label-free acute lymphocytic leukemia classification

The subtyping of Acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) is important for proper treatment strategies and prognosis. Conventional methods for manual blood and bone marrow testing are time-consuming and labor-intensive, while recent flow cytometric immunophenotyping has the limitations such as high cost. Here we develop the deep learning-based light scattering imaging flow cytometry for label-free classification of ALL. The single ALL cells confined in three dimensional (3D) hydrodynamically focused stream are excited by light sheet. Our label-free microfluidic cytometry obtains big-data two dimensional (2D) light scattering patterns from single ALL cells of B/T subtypes. A deep learning framework named Inception V3-SIFT (Scale invariant feature transform)-Scattering Net (ISSC-Net) is developed, which can perform high-precision classification of T-ALL and B-ALL cell line cells with an accuracy of 0.993 ± 0.003. Our deep learning-based 2D light scattering flow cytometry is promising for automatic and accurate subtyping of un-stained ALL.

Leukaemia and nutrition. I: Malnutrition is an adverse prognostic factor in the outcome of treatment of patients with standard-risk acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

A group of 43 pediatric patients with standard-risk ALL were studied. Thirty-seven per cent of them presented with malnutrition at diagnosis. Malnourished children had a significantly worse outcome than well-nourished children. Five-year DFS was 83% for well-nourished children (WNC) and 26% for under-nourished children (UNC) (p less than 0.001). Relapses presented more frequently in the bone marrow in UNC than in WNC (56% vs 7%, p less than 0.0001). The doses of maintenance chemotherapy had to be reduced in 68% of UNC and 11% of WNC (p less than 0.005); the doses of maintenance myelosuppressive chemotherapy (6-MP, oral MTX and hydroxyldaunorubicin) received by UNC were approximately 50% of those received by WNC (p less than 0.01). The correlation between malnutrition and compromised treatment was 0.92. Malnutrition might be included as an adverse prognostic factor in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).