Let's begin by taking a step back and considering leukemia and lymphoma in general. We learned that an important way to classify cancers is to consider the cell of origin. Leukemias and lymphomas are cancers that arise from

a. hematopoietic (blood) cells, or the cells that give rise to mature blood cells

b. white blood cells, or the cells that give rise to mature white blood cells, only

c. lymphocytes, or the cells that give rise to mature lymphocytes, only.

d. mature lymphocytes only.

The correct answer is option a. "hematopoietic (blood) cells, or the cells that give rise to mature blood cells".

Explanation:

Leukemias and lymphomas are two forms of blood cancer. The difference between leukemias and lymphomas, is that leukemia affects the blood and bone marrow, and lymphoma affects only the lymph nodes. Wherever the location affected by these two diseases, Leukemias and lymphomas arise from the transformation of hematopoietic (blood) cells (or the cells that give rise to mature blood cells) into hematologic malignancies.