A patient with polycythemia, an elevated red blood cell count, would likely have an increased leukocyte count as well, since leukocytes and erythrocytes develop from the same precursor cells. In leukemia, a cancer of white blood cells, the leukocyte count would be elevated due to the uncontrolled multiplication of abnormal white blood cells in the bone marrow, which crowds out production of other blood cell types like red blood cells and platelets. Leukemia causes accumulation of cancerous white blood cells that interfere with normal blood cell production.