British Medical Bulletin Advance Access published online on April 18, 2007
British Medical Bulletin, doi:10.1093/bmb/ldm008
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Eosinophilic leukaemia
Department of Haematology, St. Mary's Hospital Campus of Imperial College, Praed Street, London W2 1NY, UK
* Correspondence to: Professor Barbara Bain Department of Haematology St Mary's Hospital, Praed Street London W2 1NY, UK. E-mail: b.bain{at}imperial.ac.uk
The last few years have seen much progress in our understanding of, and treatments for, eosinophilic leukaemia. In preparing this review, we used Pubmed and the archives of well-known Haematology journals to search for relevant research papers and reviews published in the last 510 years. In this article, we review the differential diagnosis and sub-classification of eosinophilic leukaemia, and go on to discuss clinical features, investigation and treatment of these disorders. We are increasingly able to classify clonal eosinophilias based on the underlying molecular genetic abnormalities, and prognosticate and treat patients according to this. The successful treatment of certain of these patients with imatinib, followed by a greater understanding of the mechanism of this treatment, has revolutionized the outlook for many patients with eosinophilic leukaemia. New similar tyrosine kinase inhibitors and other promising therapies are on the horizon.
Keywords: Eosinophilic leukaemia eosinophilia
Accepted for publication February 27, 2007.