Friday leukemia: myth or reality?

摘要

"I let him know his name should be Friday, which was the day I saved his life: I called him so for the memory of the time." We wonder if Robinson Crusoe could have been an oncologist, since not only in classic literature but also in modern medicine, some encounters with misfortune seem to favor a Friday. Undoubtedly, most hematologists are familiar with the subgroup of acute leukemias that first present on a Friday. Diagnostic and therapeutic efforts in caring for these patients are some of the most time- and work-intensive procedures in oncology today, and these patients are felt to present on a Friday afternoon, prompting a flurry of activity at the onset of the upcoming weekend. Clearly, we feel that, especially in hematology, all efforts at optimal processing of fresh material from blood and bone marrow in hospitals and study groups organizing multicenter clinical trials are mandatory regardless of the weekday.