Lack of prognostic value of the thymidine-labelling index in adult acute leukaemia.

A study has been made of the thymidine labelling index (TLI) of marrow blast cells in 201 adults with untreated acute leukaemia. There was no significant difference between the TLI in 172 patients with acute myeloblastic leukaemia and 29 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The TLI did not correlate with the age, sex, peripheral-blood or marrow blast-cell count, or the platelet count at presentation. In neither acute myeloblastic leukaemia nor acute lymphoblastic leukaemia was there any correlation between the TLI and the response to the initial therapy, the duration of the first complete remission or survival.