Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 August 2014
The authors briefly describe their old and recent research work on the etiology of leukemia, and discuss the genetic-viral hypothesis of human leukemia. The injection of human leukemic blood in fertilized chicken eggs, before incubation, causes a severe disease in the embryos. This disease is characterized by the fact that the hemoblasts are extremely atypical, and loose the ability to produce intravascular blood cells, while they form perivascular infiltrates. The disease is indefinitely transmitted from egg to egg, also using acellular filtered material. The transmissibility is inactivated by heat. In conclusion, we can say that the observations described strongly support the viral etiology of human leukemia and suggest the hypothesis that the virus might be responsible for a somatic mutation of the blasts.