Prognosis in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia of Childhood as Determined by Cytogenetic Studies at Diagnosis

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Abstract
Fifty‐one children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia on a common protocol of treatment were classified according to presence or absence of chromosomal abnormalities found at the time of diagnosis in bone marrow and/ or blood. Twenty‐two or 43% had normal karyotypes while 29 (57%) had clonal abnormalities using the Giemsa‐trypsin banding technique. Thirteen of the 29 (45%) chromo‐somally abnormal patients relapsed while only three of 21 (14%) with normal karyotypes have relapsed with a median follow‐up of 49.5 months (42‐76 months). (One child with a normal karyotype did not respond to therapy.) Several hypotheses have been offered to attempt to explain the significantly better prognosis of patients with no observable initial chromosomal aberrations.