Karyotypic evolution in acute myelomonocytic leukemia with pericentric inversion of chromosome 16.

A 37-year-old Japanese male patient with acute myelomonocytic leukemia subtype M4 (according to FAB classification) associated with bone marrow eosinophilia and specific chromosome abnormalities: a pericentric inversion of chromosome 16, inv(16)(p13q22); a long arm deletion of chromosome #7, del(7)(q22q34); and a gain of chromosomes #8 and #22 is reported. In addition to the modal karyotype, 47,XY,7q-,inv(16),+22, there were three other clones whose karyotypes were 46,XY,inv(16); 47,XY,inv(16),+22; and 48,XY,+8,inv(16),+22. As these karyotypes were related to each other, the presence of multiple clones indicated that karyotypic evolution had occurred. The karyotypic evolution associated with 7q- has not been reported previously in patients with M4Eo with inv(16).