Acute lymphoblastic leukemia--hand mirror variant--viral immune interrelationship as demonstrated by ultrastructural studies.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia--hand mirror variant--was extensively restudied in a 22-year-old white female who survived for 22 months without therapy. Immune complexes to the baboon endogenous virus (BaEV) were found in the bone marrow plasma of the relapse specimen in 1977, but not in the bone marrow plasma from the terminal state in 1979. Immunoperoxidase-tagged IgM antibody prepared from the patient's bone marrow plasma revealed BaEV antigen on the tip of the uropod of the HMC at the time immune complexes were found in the marrow. Absence of immune complexes in the marrow. Absence of immune complexes in the bone marrow in the terminal state suggested a failure of the patient's immune surveillance system and/or possible immune suppression by chemotherapy.