Neoplastic involvement of granulocytic lineage, not granulocytic-monocytic, monocytic, or erythrocytic lineage, in a patient with chronic neutrophilic leukemia.

Chronic neutrophilic leukemia (CNL) is a very rare myeloproliferative disorder. To determine the neoplastic origin of CNL, morphological and cytogenetical studies were made of colonies derived from hematopoietic progenitors of a patient with CNL. The patient's hematopoietic progenitors spontaneously formed colonies consisting of mature granulocytes, and cytogenetical study of the colonies indicated chromosome abnormalities identical to those in the patient's bone marrow cells. Analysis of colonies consisting of granulocytes and macrophages, macrophages, or erythrocytes disclosed a normal karyotype. These results demonstrated that the neoplastic process in this patient with CNL originated in hematopoietic progenitors capable of differentiating only into granulocytes, and not granulocytes and monocytes, monocytes, or erythrocytes.