PRESENTING CHARACTERISTICS OF TRISOMY-8 AS THE PRIMARY CYTOGENETIC ABNORMALITY ASSOCIATED WITH CHILDHOOD ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC-LEUKEMIA - A PEDIATRIC-ONCOLOGY-GROUP (POG) STUDY-(8600 8493)/

Although trisomy 8 is the single most common numerical abnormality in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), relatively few cases with acute lymphobl astic leukemia (ALL) and trisomy 8 have been reported. We report the c linical and laboratory features of seven children with ALL and trisomy 8 as the sole cytogenetic abnormality and review nine similar cases f rom the literature. Among the children studied by the Pediatric Oncolo gy Group (FOG) with newly diagnosed ALL, only 0.3% had trisomy 8 as th e sole abnormality Four of our patients had T-cell ALL and three had e arly pre-B ALL, Presenting clinical features were typical for the resp ective immunophenotypes. Six of the seven children achieved complete r emission. Our study suggest that trisomy 8 is an infrequent, recurring abnormality among children with ALL, which appears to be associated w ith a T-cell immunophenotype.