CD7+ acute non-lymphocytic leukemia: evidence for an early multipotential progenitor.

Nineteen of 71 (26%) cases of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) were found to express CD7, a cell surface marker found early during T lineage differentiation. These myeloid leukemias often expressed other lymphoid markers and frequently had rearranged T-cell receptor beta and immunoglobulin heavy chain genes. We propose that in CD7+ AML, the malignant transformation occurred in a CD7+ progenitor cell. CD7+ myeloid leukemic precursors may be capable of limited differentiation with loss of CD7 during the initial phase of the disease, but this capacity may diminish during the course of treatment such that CD7 expression persists.