Chromosome studies in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

Chromosome banding studies of the bone marrow were performed in 35 adult (greater than 14 years) patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Surface marker analysis was done in 24 of these and revealed 4 B-ALL, 5 T-ALL and 15 non-T non-B ALL. Most patients were studied at diagnosis before any treatment. A clonal karyotypic abnormality was found in 16 patients (46 %) initially. A Philadelphia chromosome was found in 3 patients, all belonging to the non-T non-B group. 5 patients, who all had blast cells with morphologic characteristics of Burkitt type L, were found to have bone marrow cells with a 14q + marker chromosome. In at least 4 cases this was due to a t(8;14). The cytogenetic findings showed some correlation to the ALL subgroup, but not to the response to treatment or the prognosis.