ABSENCE OF MICROSATELLITE INSTABILITY DURING THE PROGRESSION OF CHRONIC MYELOCYTIC-LEUKEMIA

Microsatellites are highly polymorphic, short-tandem repeat sequences dispersed throughout the genome. To test the occurrence of genetic ins tability in the progression of chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML), we s tudied microsatellite instability (MSI) in 17 patients with CML. The D NAs from both chronic phase and blast crisis were analyzed at 10 loci. No MSI was observed in any of the 17 cases of blast crisis. These res ults indicate that MSI is rare and is not associated with progression to blast crisis in most cases of CML.