Relationship between clinical status of leukemic patients and virus-like particles in their plasma

This study correlates the presence of virus-like particles in the plasma with the clinical status of patients with leukemia. One hundred twenty-two blood samples from 76 leukemic and 14 nonleukemic patients were studied by thin sectioning of the plasma pellets and electron microscopy. Of 45 patients with myelocytic leukemia, five with acute and four with chronic myelocytic leukemia showed multiple virus-like particles. Seven additional patients had similar particles in lesser number or particles devoid of the dense nucleoid. In these 16 patients the particles were detected when the disease was untreated or not responding to therapy. Three patients with acute myelocytic leukemia and numerous virus-like particles in the florid leukemic phase showed no particles while in complete and partial remission. Numerous particles were found in the plasma of one patient with acute lymphocytic leukemia but none were found in samples from 14 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. One suspicious sample was obtained from a patient with infectious mononucleosis but 14 other nonleukemic samples were negative.