ISODICENTRIC CHROMOSOME-21 - A NOVEL ABERRATION IN ACUTE MYELOID-LEUKEMIA

We present here a 78-year-old female patient with acute myeloid leukem ia (AML), French-American-British classification M2, exhibiting isodic entric chromosome 21, idic(21)(q22), at the time of diagnosis. The pat ient had three idic(21)(q22), besides the del(5)(q13q32), add(21)(q22) , dic(21;22) (q22; q13), and +22. Fluorescence in situ hybridization s tudies with whole-chromosome painting and centromere-specific probes f or chromosome 21 verified the diagnosis of idic(21)(q22). There were n o distinct clinicohematological characteristics of AML with isodicentr ic 21. The patient was treated with remission-induction therapy follow ed by consolidation therapy. Two years later, the patient showed the d isappearance of isodicentric 21 but retained del(5)(q13q32) and gained other chromosomal abnormalities, +add(17)(p11) and -16. To our knowle dge, this is the first report of AML with acquired idic(21) (q22). (C) Elsevier Science Inc., 1998.