Comprehensive array CGH of normal karyotype myelodysplastic syndromes reveals hidden recurrent and individual genomic copy number alterations with prognostic relevance.

About 40% of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) present with a normal karyotype, and they are facing different courses of disease. To advance the biological understanding and to find molecular prognostic markers, we performed a high-resolution oligonucleotide array study of 107 MDS patients (French American British) with a normal karyotype and clinical follow-up through the Duesseldorf MDS registry. Recurrent hidden deletions overlapping with known cytogenetic aberrations or sites of known tumor-associated genes were identified in 4q24 (TET2, 2x), 5q31.2 (2x), 7q22.1 (3x) and 21q22.12 (RUNX1, 2x). One patient with a 7q22.1 deletion had an additional 5q31.2 deletion of the acute myeloid leukemia/MDS region, the smallest deletion identified so far and including the putative tumor suppressor (ts) genes, EGR1 and CTNNA1. One TET2 deletion was homozygous and one heterozygous, with a missense mutation in the remaining allele, further supporting its role as a ts gene. Besides these recurrent alterations, additional individual imbalances were found in 34 cases; in total, 42/107 (39%) cases had genomic imbalances. These patients had an inferior survival as compared with the rest of the patients (P=0.002). This study emphasizes the heterogeneity of MDS, but points to interesting genes that may have diagnostic and prognostic impact.