Double minute chromosomes in a patient with myelodysplastic syndrome transforming into acute myeloid leukemia

Presence of double minute chromosomes (dmin) is rare in bone marrow cells i n patients with preleukemia and leukemia. We describe a case of myelodyspla stic syndrome-refractory anemia with excess of blasts (MDS-RAEB) associated with two unrelated pathological chromosomal clones that developed during t he progression of the disease. The patient was followed cytogenetically for a period of 4 years. At the time of transition into RAEB-T and later to ac ute myeloid leukemia (AML), dmin tr ere associated with resistance to chemo therapy. Fluorescence in situ hybridization study proved that the dmin in t his case rr ere c-MYC amplicons. At the terminal stage of the disease, dmin s were present in all 50 analyzed cells. (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1999. A ll rights reserved.