[Chromosome aberrations and clinical features of childhood and adult acute nonlymphocytic leukemia].

I studied the karyotype in 66 patients (38 children and 28 adults) with ANLL, who were diagnosed on the basis of the FAB classification. Clonal chromosome abnormalities were found in 45 of the 66 patients. Six patients had AML (M1), and 23 including 8 with t (8; 21), had AML (M2). All 10 patients but one with APL (M3) had t (15; 17). Twelve patients had AMMOL (M4); 7 of these had a normal karyotype, and another had t (11; 19). Fourteen patients had AMOL (M5); 4 of these had t (9; 11), and 4 others had 11q rearrangements not involving chromosome 9. Only one patient had EL (M6), whose karyotype was normal. As t (8; 21) and t (15; 17) are uniquely associated with AML (M2) and APL (M3), respectively, t (9; 11) is seen only kn AMOL The other 11q rearrangements are more common in AMOL, but are also seen in AMMOL. To examine correlation of karyotype with prognosis, the 66 patients were classified into 6 groups; 8 with t (8; 21), 9 with t (15; 17), 4 with t (9; 11), 5 with other 11q rearrangements, 19 with other abnormalities, and 21 with normal diploidy. All the patients with t (8; 21) entered remission, and their median survival (16 months) was longer than that of any other group of patients. The patients with normal diploidy, those with the 11q rearrangements, or those with other abnormalities had a little shorter survival than those with t (8; 21). All 9 patients with t (15; 17) had DIC, and 4 of these died during induction therapy. Their median survival was only 6 months. All patients with t (9; 11) died during induction therapy; 3 of these had extremely high WBC counts and DIC at diagnosis. The patients were also classified into 3 groups, i. e. NN (20 patients), AN (21 patients) and AA (19 patients), on the basis of the frequency of abnormal mitotic cells in the bone marrow. The NN patients or the AN patients had longer survival times than the AA patients (p less than 0.05). My study demonstrated that the karyotype is correlated with morphology of leukemic cells and with survival.