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T-Cell Leukemia Samples

by | Dec 29, 2022 | News Releases | 0 comments

Bay Biosciences provides high quality, clinical grade, tumor tissue samples, FFPE blocks with matched cryogenically preserved K2EDTA plasma, sera (serum) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) biofluid samples from T-cell leukemia patients.

The K2EDTA plasma, sera (serum) and PBMC biofluid specimens are processed from T-cell leukemia patient’s peripheral whole-blood using customized collection and processing protocols.

T-cell leukemia tissue blocks and matched biofluid samples are collected from unique patients diagnosed with lymphoma and are provided to a valued pharmaceutical customer for research, diagnostics, discovery and drug development.


T-Cell Leukemia Overview

Adult T-cell leukemia is an uncommon form of cancer that causes a type of white blood cells known as T cells to grow uncontrollably in a patient’s bone marrow. Adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) is one form of the condition and results from a viral infection.

Scientists call the virus that causes ATL human T-cell leukemia virus type-1 (HTLV-1). This virus can also cause a type of lymphoma that begins in the immune system rather than the bone marrow. Doctors refer to the two conditions collectively as adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL).

T-cell leukemia is a relatively rare form of cancer. Like other types of leukemia, it affects blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. These are cells that will go on to become blood cells but that are still in their early, or immature, form.

In addition to plasma, blood consists of red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets. These cells go through several stages of development before becoming mature.

T-cell leukemia causes an abnormality in a specific type of immature white blood cells, known as T lymphocytes or T cells. T cells protect the body from infection. If these cells become cancerous, they divide and grow uncontrollably.

ATL is a type of T-cell leukemia caused by HTLV-1. The condition is rare in the United States, but it is more common in Japan, parts of Africa, South America, the Middle East, and the Caribbean.

Most patients who contract HTLV-1 do not go on to develop any serious disease. HTLV-1 affects around 10 million patients globally, but only 2–5% of them develop symptomatic ATLL.


Sub Types of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL)

There are four subtypes of ATLL:

  • Acute Leukemia: This type grows the fastest and accounts for over 50% of all ATL cases. It is aggressive and the most challenging to treat of all the subtypes.
  • Chronic Leukemia: Chronic ATL also grows slowly. Doctors further categorize chronic ATL into favorable and unfavorable types, depending on the impact the condition is having on a person’s body.
  • Lymphoma: This subtype begins in the immune system rather than the bone marrow. It can behave in a similar way to acute ATL, growing quickly and aggressively. Another name for this subtype is lymphomatous.
  • Smoldering Leukemia: This type of leukemia grows slowly and may cause few or no symptoms.


Signs and Symptoms of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL)

Symptoms of ATL can vary depending on the subtype the patient has. Patients with the smoldering subtype may not have noticeable symptoms or may only develop a few skin lesions.

Patients with more aggressive forms of ATL may experience:

  • Enlarged lymph nodes in one or more locations
  • Fatigue and tiredness
  • Enlarged organs, such as the liver or spleen
  • High calcium levels in the blood, or hypercalcemia
  • Skin lesions

Hypercalcemia can be serious. It causes symptoms such as:

Children who develop ATLL often experience the acute or lymphomatous subtypes. Many develop an enlarged thymus, an organ that resides in front of the trachea, or windpipe. This can cause breathing problems.

Diagnosis of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL)

To diagnose ATLL, a doctor will need to take samples of blood, bone marrow, or tissue.

This may involve the following procedure:

  • Blood tests
  • Bone marrow aspirate
  • Tissue biopsy
  • Bone and bone marrow biopsy

A healthcare professional can take blood from the patient’s vein in the arm, whereas bone or bone marrow usually comes from a hip bone.

A specialist will then examine the samples for signs of ATLL using various methods. They may use a microscope to examine them closely, or machines that test the sample’s proteins and DNA.


Treatment of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL)

The treatment options for leukemia depend on the type of leukemia that a doctor diagnoses the person as having.

Examples of possible treatments include:

  • Chemotherapy
  • Immune-modulating drugs
  • Immunosuppressive therapies
  • Splenectomy, which is the surgical removal of the spleen
  • Stem cell transplants

The best treatment will depend on the underlying cause of leukemia, as some types of leukemia respond differently to certain treatment approaches.

Depending on the Adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL) subtype, the following treatment options are available:

Slow-growing Subtypes of ATLL

For some patients who have one of the slower-growing subtypes of ATLL with mild or no symptoms, observation without active treatment which is known as “active surveillance” (also known as “watch and wait” or “watchful waiting”), may be appropriate.

During this period, regular follow-up with your healthcare team is required. For ATLL affecting the skin, skin-directed therapies (such as, topical steroids or local radiation) may be prescribed.

Aggressive Subtypes of ATLL

For patients with a more aggressive subtype, active treatment is needed.  Common first-line (initial) chemotherapies used to treat ATLL are the same as those used to treat other types of T-cell lymphomas. These include:

  • CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine and prednisone)
  • Dose-adjusted EPOCH (etoposide, vincristine, doxorubicin, cyclophosphamide and prednisone)
  • CHOEP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, etoposide and prednisone)
  • Hyper-CVAD (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, doxorubicin, and dexamethasone)

Is ATL Curable?

It is possible for ATL to go into remission. This means doctors cannot detect ATL in the body, and a person has no symptoms. Remission can be permanent or temporary.

However, ATL is often aggressive. The acute, lymphoma, and unfavorable chronic subtypes are more difficult to treat, while the favorable chronic and smoldering subtypes have a better prognosis.

For slow-growing forms of ATL, doctors may adopt a “watch and wait” approach to see whether the condition progresses. If the symptoms are mild and do not progress, the patient may not need treatment or may not require it for some time.

Around 25% of cases of chronic or smoldering ATLL ultimately progress to the acute form. Anyone with acute ATLL typically undergoes treatment.

First-line treatment for ATL is antiviral therapy. Those with the lymphoma subtype seem to respond better to chemotherapy. Depending on the circumstances, a doctor may recommend one or both approaches.

Some individuals may also receive a stem cell transplantation from a donor, although this combined treatment is still under evaluation for its effectiveness.

Clinical trials are also testing the potential of immunomodulating drugs for ATL treatment.

Prevention of adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma (ATLL)

ATL develops due to an infection with HTLV-1, a virus that belongs to the same class of viruses as HIV.

Similarly, to HIV, HTLV-1 spreads through contact with bodily fluids. It can transmit through:

  • Blood transfusions
  • Breastfeeding
  • Injection drug use
  • Sexual contact

There is no cure or vaccine for HTLV-1. There is also no consistent method of screening for HTLV-1 worldwide and no way for doctors to predict who will go on to develop ATL. For this reason, preventing its spread is vital for preventing ATL.

However, because most patients with HTLV-1 experience no symptoms, this can be challenging. Few studies have looked at the best ways of preventing HTLV-1 transmission.

Approaches that may help include the following:

  • Avoiding or limiting breastfeeding: People with newborns may want to reduce the amount of time they breastfeed, or to avoid breastfeeding altogether. Alternatively, people can use the “freeze-thaw” method, which involves expressing the milk, freezing it, and then thawing it before giving it to an infant. This kills the cells that contain HTLV-1.
  • Screening blood donors: There are ways that health organizations can screen blood donors for HTLV-1 before they give blood. This can reduce transmission via blood transfusions.
  • Barrier methods of birth control: There are no studies confirming that barrier methods of birth control prevent HTLV-1 transmission. As methods such as condoms and dental dams can prevent other sexually transmitted infections from spreading, it is a good idea to use them.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in providing researchers with high quality, clinical grade, fully characterized human tissue samples, bio-specimens, and human bio-fluid collections.

Samples available include cancer (tumor) tissue, cancer serum, cancer plasma, cancer, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC). and human tissue samples from most other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences maintains and manages its own biorepository, the human tissue bank (biobank) consisting of thousands of diseased samples (specimens) and from normal healthy donors available in all formats and types.

Our biobank procures and stores fully consented, deidentified and institutional review boards (IRB) approved human tissue samples and matched controls.

All our human tissue collections, human specimens and human bio-fluids are provided with detailed, samples associated patient’s clinical data.

This critical patient’s clinical data includes information relating to their past and current disease, treatment history, lifestyle choices, biomarkers, and genetic information.

Patient’s data is extremely valuable for researchers and is used to help identify new effective treatments (drug discovery & development) in oncology, and other therapeutic areas and diseases.

Bay Biosciences banks wide variety of human tissue samples and biological samples, including cryogenically preserved at – 80°C.

Including fresh frozen tissue samples, tumor tissue samples, formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE), tissue slides, with matching human bio-fluids, whole blood and blood-derived products such as serum, plasma and PBMC.

Bay Biosciences is a global leader in collecting and providing human tissue samples according to the specified requirements and customized, tailor-made collection protocols.

Please contact us anytime to discuss your special research projects and customized human tissue sample requirements.

Bay Biosciences provides human tissue samples (human specimens) from diseased and normal healthy donors which includes:

We can also procure most human bio-specimens, special collections and requests for human samples that are difficult to find. All our human tissue samples are procured through IRB-approved clinical protocols and procedures.

In addition to the standard processing protocols, Bay Biosciences can also provide human plasma, serum, and PBMC bio-fluid samples using custom processing protocols; you buy donor-specific collections in higher volumes and specified sample aliquots from us.

Bay Biosciences also provides human samples from normal healthy donors; volunteers, for controls and clinical research, contact us Now.

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