Comparative genomic hybridization in polycythemia vera and essential thrombocytosis patients

Polycythemia vera (PV) and essential thrombocytosis (ET) are clonal chronic myeloproliferative disorders originating from a multipotent stem cell. Bon e marrow examinations reveal chromosomal abnormalities in 15-43% of PV pati ents and 5% of ET patients, but no specific recurring abnormality has been found to date. We aimed to find cytogenetic aberrations in PV and ET by com parative genomic hybridization (CGH), a relatively new molecular cytogeneti c technique. In this study, CGH analysis was performed on peripheral blood leukocytes of 12 PV patients and 8 ET patients. One patient (8.3%) with PV had an abnormal karyotype with a deletion in 7q11.2 and one patient with ET (12.5%) had a gain in 18p. Peripheral blood analysis by CGH revealed a low frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in PV and ET patients. However, usi ng CGH we were able to detect two cytogenetic aberrations that were not rep orted previously in these disorders. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rig hts reserved.