title: Clinical, haematological and cytogenetic features in 24 patients with structural rearrangements of the Q arm of chromosome 3.
abstract: To determine the frequency and clinical significance of acquired abnormalities of chromosome 3 at q21 and q25-26 in haematological malignancy, we reviewed the haematological and cytogenetic features of 24 patients with a 3q rearrangement identified amongst 1200 cases with clonal cytogenetic abnormalities detected at our institutions during a 12-year period. Thirteen patients presented with de novo acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), 10 with myelodysplasia (MDS) and one in blast phase of chronic myelogenous leukaemia. Twenty patients (83%) had megakaryocytic dysplasia and 14 (58%) had normal or increased numbers of megakaryocytes, but only four patients (16%) had absolute thrombocytosis > 500 x 10(9)/l (three with AML, one with MDS transforming to AML). A review of 205 cases of AML investigated in our institutions between 1985 and 1990 for whom cytogenetic results were obtained revealed that a platelet count > 500 x 10(9)/l at presentation was highly suggestive of an underlying 3q abnormality. A limited review of the literature on this subject confirmed that 15-20% of patients with a 3q abnormality will have thrombocytosis. The response of these patients to conventional antileukaemic therapy is uniformly poor, despite haematological and clinical differences between the subtypes of 3q rearrangements.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology, British Columbia Cancer Agency, Vancouver General Hospital, Canada.
authors.forename: A P
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Grigg
authors.forename: R D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Gascoyne
authors.forename: G L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Phillips
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Horsman
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000473:pathology; D002648:Child; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D002893:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 3; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007621:Karyotyping; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000235:genetics; D007951:Leukemia, Myeloid / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009190:Myelodysplastic Syndromes / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology