ANLL patients with normal karyotype are not a homogeneous prognostic group
Mirto, S.; Santoro, A.; Barbata, G.; Crescimanno, A.; Buscemi, F.; Carbone, P.; Caronia, F.
Haematologica 77(6): 484-486
1992
ISSN/ISBN: 0390-6078 PMID: 1289185 Document Number: 391523
Background and Methods: Karyotype in ANLL is referred as an indipendent prognostic factor. The prognosis of diploid ANLL subjects has been defined as "good" by some authors, or, more recently, "intermediate" by others. This is a retrospective study on 30 consecutive heavy treated ANLL diploid patients with the aim to make a correlation among age, normal karyotype and response. Chromosomal banding studies were performed at presentation with GTG technique. Diploid patients were divided into two age groups lt 60 years (17 cases) and gtoreq 60 (13 cases). Data were analyzed by NCSS software. Results and Conclusions: CR rate for the two diploid age groups was 94% and 38% respectively (p= 0.002). Median DFS and overall survival were 14.4 and 23.3 months, 4 and 5 months for the two subgroups respectively: these data were not statistically significative. The probability of achieving CR was not affected by blood counts and Karnofsky performance status on admission, but only by age. Though ANLL patients with the same karyotype have the same course regardless of other prognositic factors, this does not occur in our series of diploid patients. We suggest that a normal karyotype, at least as defined with the GTG technique, does not characterize a homogeneous group of patient. Heterogeneity in this group might be due to submicroscopic or molecular genetic changes; it can enhance the age as prognostic factor.