Jumping translocation of homogeneously staining region and tetraploidy with double minutes in acute myelomonocytic leukemia

We report a 71-year-old patient with acute myelomonocytic leukemia (AMMoL) who had complicated chromosomal abnormalities showing diploidy with a jumpi ng translocation of a homogeneously staining region (hsr) and tetraploidy w ith double minutes (dmin). The analysis of gene amplification showed that h sr and dmin were the results of C-ETS 1 gene amplification. After induction chemotherapy, tetraploidy with dmin completely disappeared, while diploidy with hsr and del(11)(q23) remained until the patient died. It is speculate d that hsr is more stable than dmin during chemotherapy and that the presen ce of tetraploidy is not necessarily a factor of poor response to chemother apy for acute leukemia. (C) Elsevier Science inc., 1999. All rights reserve d.