 The term " leukemia " was coined by Rudolf Virchow , the renowned German pathologist , in 1856 . As a pioneer in the use of the light microscope in pathology , Virchow was the first to describe the abnormal excess of white blood cells in people with the clinical syndrome described by Velpeau and Bennett . As Virchow was uncertain of the <unk> of the white blood cell excess , he used the purely descriptive term " leukemia " ( Greek : " white blood " ) to refer to the condition . 
