title: Banding cytogenetic analysis in pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in a Brazilian population.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Cytogenetic studies in Brazilian population about childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood malignancy, are scarce. Moreover, Brazilian race is very heterogeneous and is made by the confluence of people of several different origins, from the original Native Brazilians, with the influx of Portuguese colonizers, Black African slaves, and recent European, Arab and Japanese immigration. The purpose of this prospective, multicentric study was to assess the sociodemographic, clinic and cytogenetic characteristics of the children treated for ALL in the Northeast region of Brazil.
  
  
  RESULTS
  This study includes thirty patients between 4 months and 17 years old treated for ALL from January 1st, 2009 to November 30th, 2010. Cytogenetic analysis showed that in nineteen out of thirty patients (64%) presented some chromosome abnormalities, in which 53% corresponds to numerical abnormalities, 21% structural and numerical abnormalities, and 26% only structural changes. Moreover, seven patients presented complexes karyotype not yet described in the literature. Taken together these results show the importance of the cytogenetic analysis in ALL pediatric patients and illustrates that the studied population presented unexpected complexes karyotypes which were correlated to poor outcome.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results demonstrate the importance of banding cytogenetics for ALL diagnosis despite the use of most modern techniques such as FISH and aCGH, and provide reliable insight into the ALL in Brazil.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Análises Clínicas e Toxicológicas/ Laboratório de Imunologia, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte/, Rua Gen, Gustavo Cordeiro De Farias S/N, Petrópolis, CEP 59010-180, Natal, RN, Brazil. erica.gil@ig.com.br.
authors.forename: Erica Aires
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Gil
authors.forename: Tirzah Braz Petta
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Lajus
authors.forename: Taissa Maria Oliveira
authors.initials: TM
authors.lastname: de Moura
authors.forename: Juliana Mendonça
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Freire
authors.forename: Andréa Luciana Araújo
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: da Fernandes
authors.forename: Gioconda Dias Rodrigues
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Leão
authors.forename: Edlene Melo Reis do
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Nascimento
authors.forename: Gabriela Vasconcelos Andrade
authors.initials: GV
authors.lastname: de Alves
authors.forename: Geraldo Barroso Cavalcanti
authors.initials: GB
authors.lastname: Júnior
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