Cytogenetic study on acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

During 1987-1988 cytogenetic studies were performed in 30 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Of the 30 patients 15 (10 children and 5 adults) were found to have abnormal karyotypes including 8 cases (27%) of pseudodiploidy, 2 cases (7%) of hypodiploidy, one case (3%) of low-hyperdiploidy (modal number 47-50), and 4 cases (13%) of high-hyperdiploidy (modal number greater than 50). Immunological classification was performed by using monoclonal antibodies in 26 patients, and the most common immunophenotype was C-ALL. The patients with abnormal karyotypes were more likely to be NuLL-ALL (6 in 14) as compared with patients with normal karyotype (1 in 12). In our series, there was no significant difference between the patients with and without cytogenetic changes in regard of clinical findings such as FAB classification, the rate of complete remission, percentage of lymphoblasts in bone marrow cells and blood picture.