adult T-cell leukemia

noun

variants or adult T-cell leukemia/lymphoma

: a lymphoproliferative disease that is characterized by high counts of malignant T cells, skin lesions, hypercalcemia, and enlargement of the liver, spleen, and lymph nodes and that is associated with the retrovirus HTLV-I

Only about 3 percent of HTLV-1 carriers will go on to develop adult T-cell leukemia, which has no effective treatment or cure.

—The Connecticut Post, 2 Apr.

Note: Adult T-cell leukemia has four subtypes: an acute subtype in which symptoms develop rapidly; a chronic subtype with a slower-developing, prolonged clinical course; a lymphomatous subtype in which malignancy is found only in the lymph nodes; and a smouldering subtype which develops slowly and has mild symptoms but may transform into a rapidly progressing disease.

—abbreviation ATL