It has been given great importance to the advances in molecular biology and genetics in the establishment of new protocols, as well as to the discovery of new tumoral markers, useful to early diagnosis and treatment of various cancer diseases, inclusive B-cell Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (B-CLL). For evaluation of the actual significance of Rai clinical staging system in the prognosis of 50 B-CLL patients at a state hemocenter, as well as for comparison between the staging results with the serum values of LDH and CD38 at diagnosis, it was collected from patient promptuaries the data regarding the total lymphocyte and platelet counting, hemoglobin concentration, and also information about the presence or absence of linfadenopathy and/or organomegaly. When compared the staging results with those of other studies, it was noted a worrying situation considering the superior percentage of patients already classified as of high risk at diagnosis. This picture of apparent delay in the detection of CLL-B was to some extent attributed to the difficulty of access to specialized centers and/or delay in hematological evaluation. Additionally, it was observed some incoherence between LDH and CD38, and between these and the clinical classification system of Rai. The results suggest that this classification system may still be useful as a general comparative prospect of B-CLL between different populations, but also emphasize the requirement of specific prognostic models that consider, beyond the clinical data e the markers CD38 and LDH, other more precise indicatives of IgVH mutational status for more accurate prognosis and therapeutics.
Hematologic profile; chronic lymphocytic leukemia; prognosis
