Editorials and Perspectives

Lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoblastic lymphomarepresents a heterogeneous group of neoplasmsarising from lymphoblasts committed to either the B- or T-cell lineage. The term acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is reserved for those cases with extensive involvement of bone marrow or peripheral blood, with 25 % bone marrow blasts as a commonly used threshold for defining ALL. The laboratory diagnosis of ALL is complex and is based on cytomorphological, immuno-logical, cytogenetic and molecular analysis. Detailed immunophenotyping of leukemic blasts distinguishes several differentiation stages of B- or T-lymphoblasts: early precursor B-ALL or pro-B-ALL, common B-ALL, and pre-B-ALL for B-lineage lymphoblasts; and pro-T-ALL, pre-T-ALL, cortical T-ALL and medullary T-ALL.1,2 Over the years, the association between the presence of specific genomic abnormalities with distinct clinical o