Acute basophilic leukemia

Acute basophilic leukemia has recently been included into a revised classif ication of acute leukemias proposed by the WHO panel. Due to the rarity of the disease, consistent diagnostic criteria are lacking. We report on two c ases of acute basophilic leukemia that occurred in our department during th e last 10 yr. We focus on their clinical, morphological and cytogenetic pre sentation. Both patients were >60 yr of age, and presented in good clinical condition with alterations to their full blood count. None had cutaneous s ymptoms such as erythema or urticaria. Cytogenetic analyses in the first pa tient showed a normal karyotype, while the second displayed a translocation t(2;6); (q23?4;p22?3), as well as a del (12)(p11). Earlier observations ha ve linked bone marrow basophilia either to a deletion of the short arm of c hromosome 12 (p11-13), to translocations involving the long arm of chromoso me 6 at 6q23 or to the translocation t(6,9); (p23;q34). However, other tran slocations involving chromosome 6p23 have not been described before. Treatm ent of our patients consisted of supportive treatment in the one with norma l karyotype and aggressive chemotherapy in the other patient. Both patients died within one year after diagnosis due to progressive or recurrent leuke mia.