Adverse effects of aneuploidy on the outcome of remission induction therapy for acute nonlymphocytic leukaemia: analysis of types of treatment failure.

Cytogenetic studies were carried out on bone marrow specimens obtained from 98 patients with acute nonlymphocytic leukaemia. Patients were treated with cytosine arabinoside and an anthracycline antibiotic. The remission rate for patients in whom only normal metaphases were detected (NN patients) was 69% while the remission rates were 50% and 40% respectively for patients in whom both normal and abnormal metaphases were seen (NA patients) and for those in whom only abnormal metaphases were noted (AA patients). Analysis of remission induction failure types suggests that the differences in outcome were related to a tendency for patients with aneuploid leukaemia to be more likely to have drug resistant disease and to the lesser ability of NA and AA patients to survive and receive a second course of therapy if the first course failed to induce a complete remission.