Greek: leukos = white , aima = blood
Synonym : Leukaemia (BE)
German: Leukämie
Leukemia is a cancer of white blood cells (Leukocytes) or their precursors in the bone marrow.
The disease is termed according to:
(I) the type of abnormal cells found most in the blood:
(II) the maturity of those abnormal cells:
In 1845, Rudolf Virchow discovered a whitening of a whole blood sample. He described this finding as "white blood syndrome" and subseqeuntly generated the term Leukämie (BE: leukaemia, AE:leukemia) as a composition of the greec words leukos (=white) and aima (=blood).
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This page was last edited on 1 April 2014, at 11:23.
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