Cytogenetic studies of bone marrow specimens from 15 patients with dysmyelopoietic syndrome are presented. The group consists of nine patients with refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB), three patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMMoL), and three patients with acquired idiopathic sideroblastic anemia (AISA). None of these patients had a prior history of therapeutic or occupational exposure to potential carcinogenic agents. G(TG)-banding revealed clonal abnormalities in nine of the 15 patients. Five of these patients exhibited one or more of the following cytogenetic abnormalities: 5q deletion, -7, +8, or +21. The AISA group appeared to be unique as chromosome abnormalities were seen in two of the three patients and the clinical course in these patients has been prolonged without progression to acute leukemia. No other clinical correlations could be made in the blast RAEB and CMMoL groups, except for possible survival benefit in patients with normal karyotypes.
Cancer 50:2834-2838, 1982.
ONRANDOM CYTOGENETIC abnormalities have been N described in various leukemias since the application of banding techniques to bone marrow preparations. Of recent interest is the association of abnormalities involving chromosomes 5 and 7 in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) secondary to treatment for a previous malignancy' or following occupational exposure to potential mutagenic/carcinogenic agents.*
Streuli et aL3 described similar cytogenetic associations in a group of eight patients with dysmyelopoietic syndromes.
The dysmyelopoietic syndromes as defined by the French-American-British (FAB) Cooperative Group4 include refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB), chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMMoL), and acquired idiopathic sideroblastic anemia (AISA). RAEB describes a group of elderly patients with anemia and cellular marrow with greater than 5% blasts present;