title: The prognostic significance of cytogenetic aberrations in childhood acute myeloid leukaemia. A study of the Swiss Paediatric Oncology Group (SPOG).
abstract: In childhood-onset acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) the clinical value of karyotypic aberrations is now acknowledged, although there is still debate concerning the prognostic significance of some events. To add to this knowledge, cytogenetic analysis was performed on a consecutive series of 84 childhood AML patients diagnosed in Switzerland. A result was obtained for all patients, with 69 (82%) showing a clonal karyotypic aberration. In the remaining 15 (18%), no karyotypic aberration was seen by either conventional or fluorescence in situ hybridisation analyses. The most frequent aberrations observed were t(11q23) (19% of all patients), t(8;21) (12%) and +8 (11%). Except for cytogenetics, no clinical parameter was shown to be significantly associated with outcome. The analysis of individual cytogenetic subgroups demonstrated that aberrations involving chromosome 16q were the strongest predictor of a good prognosis, while +8 and complex karyotypes represented the strongest predictors of a poor prognosis. It was also noteworthy that patients with the rare aberrations of del(11q) (n = 4) and t(16;21)(p11;q22) (n = 3) had a poor outcome. The results support the importance of cytogenetic analysis in childhood AML, but show that further work is required in the classification of the poor prognosis aberrations.
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland. david.betts@kispi.unizh.ch
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Betts
authors.forename: Roland A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Ammann
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hirt
authors.forename: Heinz
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hengartner
authors.forename: Maja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beck-Popovic
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kuhne
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nobile
authors.forename: Ueli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Caflisch
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Wacker
authors.forename: Felix K
authors.initials: FK
authors.lastname: Niggli
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002869:Chromosome Aberrations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D015994:Incidence; D007621:Karyotyping; D007951:Leukemia, Myeloid / Q000235:genetics*; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D012074:Remission Induction; D016019:Survival Analysis