Chromosome Aberrations and Prognosis in Preleukaemia

Abstract
Patients (24) with preleukemia were cytogenetically studied by the G[Giemsa]-banding staining technique. All patients later developed acute non-lymphocytic leukemia and died. Thirteen patients had a completely normal karyotype (NN-patients) with a median survival time of 8 mo. Six patients had both normal and abnormal metaphases (AN-patients) with a median survival time of 18.5 mo., while 5 patients had abnormal metaphases only (AA-patients) with a median survival time of 3 mo.