title: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with erythroid predominance exhibits clinical and molecular characteristics that differ from other types of AML.
abstract: The clinical importance of erythroid predominance in bone marrow of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is controversial. These cases represent a heterogeneous group of diseases that historically have been classified into different categories. We studied 313 AML patients and specifically compared the clinical, cytogenetic, and molecular features of cases of AML with erythroid predominance, arbitrarily defined as ≥50% erythroid precursors, to AML cases without erythroid predominance. We also assessed 51 patients with a high-grade myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB). All neoplasms were classified according to the World Health Organization classification. With the exception of therapy-related AML/MDS, the presence of erythroid predominance in variously classified categories of AML was associated with a survival advantage. In addition, AML with erythroid predominance had a lower frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities as well as a lower frequency of mutations involving NPM1, NRAS and FLT3 as compared with AML without erythroid predominance. We conclude that the clinical, cytogenetic, and molecular features of AML with erythroid predominance in the non-therapy-related setting are much closer to those of a high-grade myelodysplastic syndrome than they are to other types of AML.
authors: Department of Hematopathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, United States of America. zzuo@mdanderson.org
authors: Zhuang
authors: Z
authors: Zuo
authors: L Jeffrey
authors: LJ
authors: Medeiros
authors: Zhao
authors: Z
authors: Chen
authors: Dingsheng
authors: D
authors: Liu
authors: Carlos E
authors: CE
authors: Bueso-Ramos
authors: Rajyalakshmi
authors: R
authors: Luthra
authors: Sa A
authors: SA
authors: Wang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019295:Computational Biology; D020732:Cytogenetic Analysis; D015672:Erythroid Precursor Cells / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D000090243:Nucleophosmin; D016019:Survival Analysis; D055815:Young Adult