THE BLOOD PHOSPHORUS IN CHRONIC MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA, ESPECIALLY AS INFLUENCED BY ROENTGEN-RAY THERAPY

An abnormal phosphorus metabolism in leukemia has been recognized for over a quarter of a century, and yet very few observations are recorded in the literature relative to the phosphorus content of the blood in this type of disease. Moraczewski¹ in 1898 called leukemia, rather loosely, a "phosphorus and nitrogen disease" and reported not only an increased urinary excretion of phosphorus and nitrogen, but also an abnormally high phosphorus content of the blood. Though numerous studies since then, such as those of Musser and Edsall² and Knudson and Erdos,³ have clearly demonstrated the excessive output of phosphorus in the urine, there seems to be no report of any systematic investigations of the blood phosphorus in chronic myelogenous leukemia entailing an intensive study of cases over a considerable period of time. This is presumably due to the fact that it is but recently that relatively simple methods have become available for