Clinical and laboratory features of patients with CD34(+) acute promyelocytic leukemia / 中华肿瘤杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the expression of CD34 in patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and investigate the clinical and laboratory features of CD34(+) APL patients.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>262 APL patients diagnosed by chromosome analysis and/or fusion gene examination in the last five years were retrospectively analyzed in this study. To survey the expression of CD34 in those patients, all the cases were divided into two groups (CD34(+) APL vs. CD34(-) APL). The clinical features including age, gender, abnormal values of the peripheral hemogram before treatment, the complete remission (CR) rate and the incidence of DIC and laboratory data such as the results of morphology, immunology, cytogenetics and molecular biology (MICM) between those two groups were compared.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Of the 262 APL patients, 38 (14.5%) cases were positive for CD34 expression. There were no statistically significant differences between CD34(+) APL and CD34(-) APL groups in gender and age (P > 0.05). Before treatment, the median level of WBC in CD34(+) APL was 25.92 x 10(9)/L, which was significantly higher than that of CD34(-) APL (5.3 x 10(9)/L, P < 0.05). CD34(+) APL by morphology classification were mostly of the subtypes M3b and M3v (65.8%), while these subtypes in CD34(-) APL (40.3%) were significantly less (P < 0.01). There were no statistically significant differences between the two groups compared in respect of complete remission (CR) rate and the incidence of DIC (P > 0.05). The expression level of CD34 in APL had correlation to the expression level of CD2, CD7 and CD117; the latter three phenotypes in CD34(+) APL were significantly higher than those in CD34(-) APL (P < 0.01). No significant difference was found between those two groups by chromosome analysis, but there was more PML-RAR-alpha transcript short form in CD34(+) APL than that in CD34(-) APL (P < 0.05).</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>CD34(+) acute promyelocytic leukemia is a unique subtype of APL with different biological characteristics.</p>

Fluorescence in situ hybridization studies on a myeloid leukemia patient with ins(8;21)(q22;q22.1q22.3) / 中华医学遗传学杂志

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To report a case of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with the insertion (8;21)(q22;q22.1q22.3). A 33-year-old Chinese woman was referred to our hospital. Hematologic data showed WBC 42.7 x 10(9)/L with monocytosis (monocyte counts 7.296 x 10(9)/L). Bone marrow aspirate was hypercellular with 4.5% monoblasts and 7.5% promonocytes. At first she was diagnosed with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) according to the FAB criteria. Initially the patient received supportive care only, but her general condition rapidly became worse three months later. The monoblasts and promonocytes in the bone marrow rose to 20.5%. After two cycles of combined chemotherapy she obtained complete remission.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Chromosome specimens were prepared by short-term culture of bone marrow cells. Karyotype analysis was carried out by R-banding technique. Three fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) analyses were performed using AML1-ETO dual color, dual fusion probe, whole chromosome painting 8 and 21 probes, and cen-8 and Tel 21qter probes, respectively. Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for detecting the AML1-ETO fusion transcript was also performed.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>Conventional cytogenetic analysis showed a karyotype of 46,XX,ins(8;21) (q22;q22.1q22.3)[7]/46,XX[3]. FISH tests confirmed the insertion. RT-PCR analysis detected the AML1-ETO fusion transcript.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>We consider that this patient should be rediagnosed as acute myeloid leukemia according to the criteria proposed by World Health Organization (WHO) and that FISH and RT-PCR play an important role in verification of the ins(8;21).</p>

Immunophenotypic and cytogenetic features in 51 cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia / 中国实验血液学杂志

The study was aimed to investigate the immunophenotypic and cytogenetic features of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in order to provide an evidence for diagnosis and therapy. Immunophenotypic analysis was performed by using a panel of monoclonal antibodies and three-color immunofluorescence staining methods of flow cytometry in 51 patients with CLL, and the cytogenetic features were analyzed by R-banding technique. The results indicated that among 51 CLL cases, the positive rate of CD19 and CD23 was 96.1%, followed by CD15 (94.1%), CD20 (82.4%) and CD22 (78.4%). The positive rate of CD38 was 23.5%. Forty-six patients expressed both CD5 and CD19. Seven main clonal chromosomal abnormalities were detected by conventional cytogenetics (CC) in eighteen cases (35.3%), with three cases of +12, two cases of 13q(-), other chromosomal abnormalities included +14, 6q(-), t (11; 14), t (14; 18) and t (2; 7). Expression of the antigens had no relationship with chromosomal abnormalities. It is concluded that typical CLL express CD5, CD19 and CD23, and the positive rate detected by CC in CLL is low. Immunophenotyping in combination with cytogenetic technique plays an important role in the diagnosis and prognosis of CLL.