A B O Blood Type Alteration in Leukemia --Report of a Case and Review of Literatures--

Blood type alteration in a patient with myeloid leukemia is reported. The red cells of a patient, whose blood type had been A two years ago, was completely inagglutinable by several commercial anti-A and many type B sera, but they were variously agglutinated by some type O sera. They absorbed anti-A relatively little, but easily eluted anti-A and ”cross reacting” agglutinin. They were agglutinated by anti-H as feebly as type A_1 red cells from her parents. Though it could not be acertained if anti-A was entirely absent in her serum, the patient did not produce antibody against transfused type A bloods. Her saliva contained type A substance in higher concentration than her parents'. Loss of agglutinogen A from the transfused red cells in her circulation could not be demonstrated. Literatures concerning similar cases are reviewed, and possible mechanisms of blood type alteration in leukemia are discussed.