Familial Leukemia

THE extent to which genetic or familial factors play a part in the etiology of human leukemia is at present uncertain. No clear-cut general tendency for leukemia to recur in families has been apparent from various investigations made of the incidence among relatives of leukemic patients.1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Several individual families, however, have been described in which as many as 4 and 5 cases of leukemia have appeared.3 , 9 , 11 12 13 14 15 In addition, recent work has shown an increased concordance for leukemia among homozygous twins.16 The present report concerns a family in which 5 cases of acute leukemia have occurred in three consecutive generations over . . .