C-MYC AMPLIFICATION IN A PRELEUKEMIA PATIENT WITH TRISOMY-4 AND DOUBLE MINUTES - REVIEW OF THE UNIQUE COEXISTENCE OF THESE 2 CHROMOSOME-ABNORMALITIES IN ACUTE MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA

Cyogenetic analysis of the bone marrow from a woman with preleukemia s howed an aberrant clone with trisomy 4, double minutes, and a transloc ation t(8;9)(q21;q34). Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) demon strated that the double minutes were c-mye amplifications. A review of six cases in the literature and the present case with trisomy 4 and d ouble minutes showed a preponderance of females and that the patients were mostly elderly. The acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in these pat ients was either FAB subtype M2 or M4. In two out of seven cases, the double minutes were c-myc amplicons. The patients responded to treatme nt and there was karyotypic normalization during remission. There was no strong evidence of exposure to genotoxic agents. (C) Elsevier Scie nce Inc., 1997.