NEAR-HAPLOID ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC-LEUKEMIA - A UNIQUE SUBGROUP WITH A POOR PROGNOSIS

Google Scholar
  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 58  (1) , 14-19
Abstract
Two adolescent girls with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) are described whose leukemia cells were near-haploid. Their lymphoblasts stained in a block pattern with periodic acid Schiff and had common ALL surface markers confirmed by indirect immunofluorescence. Each patient had 2 populations of blasts, one near-haploid and one hyperdiploid, which was an exact doubling of the near-haploid karyotype. The 1st patient had a predominant population of cells with 26 chromosomes and a few with 52, while the 2nd had a predominance of cells with 56 and a monitority with 28. Flow cytometric analysis of DNA content initially detected the minor near-haploid population in the 2nd patient, which was confirmed later by cytogenetic review of the marrow sample. Only 4 patients were previously reported with near-haploid ALL. Of these 6, 5 were girls, 5 were adolescents and 5 had short survivals (median, 10 mo.). All 6 had disomy for chromosome 21 with or without disomy for chromosomes 10, 14, 18 or X (4 patients each). Near-haploid ALL may represent a unique subgroup of ALL with a poor prognosis. To detect these and other possible subgroups, cytogenetic analysis and flow cytometric analysis of DNA content should be included in initial evaluation of patients with ALL.