Neoplastic diseases of the haemopoietic system in Ibadan: preliminary report of a prospective study.

The clinical and epidemiological features of haemopoietic malignancies in Ibadan have been evaluated in this preliminary analysis on findings on 113 patients seen at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria, from July 1978 to June 1981. Twenty-seven patients had acute myelogenous (AML), twenty-two acute lymphoblastic (ALL), thirty-one chronic myelocytic (AML), thirty-one chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), two had polycythaemia rubra vera (PRV) and one myelofibrosis (MF). Incidence rates (IR) of 0.9 X 10(-5) and 1.9 X 10(-5) were estimated for acute leukemia (AL) and all leukemia subtypes respectively. Chloroma occurred frequently in association with AML especially in childhood, and CLL in elderly patients (greater than 50 years) and ALL appeared to manifest unusually aggressive features in spite of apparently adequate chemotherapy. Some of these clinical and epidemiological features suggest deviant biology of some haemopoietic malignancies in Ibadan.