DNA aneuploidy in acute myeloblastic leukemia is associated with a high expression of lymphoid markers.

In the present study the DNA cell content of 205 de novo acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) patients is analyzed at flow cytometry in order to determine both the incidence of DNA aneuploidy in AML patients and the clinical and biological characteristics of AML aneuploid cases. All technical procedures were performed in accordance with the proposed guidelines of the DNA Cytometric Consensus Conference. Our results show that the incidence of DNA aneuploidy is quite low (4.8%), with most cases (n = 8) hyperdiploid and only a small proportion (n = 2) hypodiploid. No major differences were detected between the aneuploid and diploid cases with respect to the clinical and prognostic disease characteristics. Regarding the immunophenotype of the blast cells, the aneuploid cases displayed both a higher incidence of immature myeloblastic phenotype and a greater expression of lymphoid-associated antigens. In summary, our results show that AML patients display a quite low incidence of DNA aneuploidy and that despite the fact that these cases do not display particular clinical characteristics, they show an association with the expression of lymphoid-related markers.