No abstract

Five patients, four women and one man, age 32–8- yr, all whites, had refractory anemia with the same abnormal bone marrow karyotype, i.e., a partial deletion of the long arm of the No. 5 chromosome. The hematologic syndrome was practically the same in these five cases. Examination of the blood revealed a moderate to severe, generally macrocytic anemia with slight leukopenia but normal or elevated platelet count. The bone marrow showed a depressed erythroid series and some abnormalities of the granulocytic series with an occasional excess of myeloblasts. Most of the megakaryocytes had a nonlobulated nucleus. These features, as well as cytogenetic, electron microscopic, isotopic, platelet function, and immunologic studies, are described in detail. The relationship of this newly established syndrome to other hematologic diseases is discussed. The syndrome constitutes another example of the association between a specific abnormal chromosome and a distinct hematologic disorder.

Sickle celi anaemia is still responsible for severe crippling and death in young patients living in developing countries. Apart from prophylaxis and treatment of infections, no active treatment can be safely proposed in such areas of the world. Therefore a bone marrow transplantation was performed in 12 patients staying in Belgium and planning to return to Africa.Twelve patients, aged between 11 months and 23 years (median 4 years), underwent a HLA identical bone marrow transplantation. The conditioning regimen included oral busulphan for four consecutive days (4 mg/kg) followed by four days of intravenous cyclophosphamide (50 mg/kg). In 10 patients the engraftment was rapid and sustained. A further patient suffered transient red cell hypoplasia and another underwent a second bone marrow transplantation from the same donor at day 62 because of graft rejection. All patients are alive and well with a follow up ranging from 9-51 months (median 27 months). In all cases a complete cessation of vaso-occlusive episodes and haemolysis was observed as was a change in the haemoglobin pattern in accordance with the donor's electrophoretic pattern.

Bone marrow samples of 16 patients (two adults and 14 children) with a B lineage acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), and in whom Ig heavy chain gene rearrangements were detectable at diagnosis using polymerase chain reaction (PCR), were studied during evolution using PCR. The VDJ junctional fragment of the Ig heavy chain rearranged gene was amplified at diagnosis. After length reduction by restriction digestion, the amplified fragment was recovered by chromatography, labelled using a specific hexamer as a primer and directly used as a clonospecific probe. The sensitivity of the PCR ranged from 1:10(4) to 1:10(5) cells, depending on the patient's rearrangement. Residual disease (MRD) was detected in most of the patients achieving a complete remission after induction therapy, regardless of the long-term outcome of treatment. However, in patients remaining in complete remission, the level of MRD showed a tendency to decrease and ultimately become undetectable for variable periods of time, while in patients eventually relapsing there was a trend for MRD to persist at stable levels and even to increase before relapse was clinically evident. We conclude that the use of a simplified methodology for obtaining a clonospecific probe from the Ig heavy chain gene, though less sensitive than the sequencing methodology, is a valuable and readily available tool to monitor MRD in a high proportion of B lineage ALL.

We sought evidence of BCR/ABL transcripts in the peripheral blood of nine CML patients in complete clinical and cytogenetic remission after treatment by bone marrow transplantation (BMT) or interferon and in one patient who entered spontaneous remission. Six patients were investigated at different times during their follow-up. We compared results obtained with the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using (a) a single-stage PCR comprising 30 cycles of amplification with selected oligomers, and (b) a two-stage procedure in which the reaction product from the first stage was subjected to a further 30 cycles with nested amplimers. Special care was taken to assess contamination, including for each patient simultaneous co-extraction of a negative control. Blood cells from all patients showed no evidence of BCR/ABL transcripts in the one-stage PCR but 9/17 specimens were positive in the two-stage procedure. Patients in complete remission for a long time (greater than 2 years) appeared negative. These results serve in part to explain the discordant findings reported in other studies and emphasize the importance of carefully selecting the technical conditions most likely to give results that are prognostically relevant for individual patients.

A new characteristic chromosome anomaly t(l1; 14)(q14;q32?) in lympho-proliferative disorders (LPD) is described in 4 cases. The extra material was found on a # 14 chromosome (14q+) and belonged to the long arm of one # 11 chromosome in 3 cases and to the long arm of a #14 in the other case. These cases confirm that the distal end of chromosome 14q may function as a "re-ceptor site," according to the hypothesis of Kaiser-McCaw et a2." and also tend to indicate that chromosome #14 may not be unique in showing so-called "donor" and "receptor sites," and that other chromosomes, in casu chromosome #11, may behave similarly. Cancer 44:188-195, 1979. YTOGENETIC STUDIES I N malignant C lymphoma have been performed ever since reliable analysis of human chromosomes became available. Besides some individual cases, a number of papers with series of malignant lymphomas studied before banding techniques were introduced have been published -Sandberg et aLZ5 Baker and Atkin,' Sasaki et a1.,26 Miles et aZ.," Millard,lS and Spiers and Baikie.28 Even though the nature of the tissues that were investigated and the methodologies used varied considerably, these studies generally agreed on the following points: 1) many and possibly the majority of lymphomas show karyotypic anomalies, and these are more prevalent in less well differentiated tumors, 2) numerical anomalies are frequent, and the modal chrpmosome numbers of the abnormal cells are in the diploid or hyperdiploid range with some cases being near tetraploid (hypodiploidy is rare), and 3) structural chromosome abnormalities are frequently observed, but no characteristic

Twenty-five patients with a primary myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) transformed into acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia (ANL) were treated with intensive chemotherapy. A complete remission (CR) was obtained in six patients (24 per cent). In five of these six patients two courses of chemotherapy were needed to achieve CR. In eight patients chemotherapy cleared the bone marrow of blasts, but the aplasia was fatal. A partial effect on bone marrow blasts was seen in four patients and no effect in another six. Eleven patients (44 per cent) died from the consequences of chemotherapy-induced cytopenia. A short interval between MDS and transformation into ANL was associated with a better chance of achieving complete remission. Age, karyotype, type of MDS, peripheral blood or bone marrow findings had no influence on the result of chemotherapy. The median survival from start of treatment was 5 months (range 0.5-24 months). In the patients who achieved a CR, the median duration of the remission was 7 months (range 3-12 months). The poor response rate, the short duration of the remissions and the high treatment-related mortality suggest that current intensive anti-leukemic chemotherapy in ANL after primary MDS is of limited benefit.

We report our findings in 18 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) aged 60 years or older. A preleukemic syndrome was observed in 2 patients. Compared to younger adults with ALL, L3 morphology was unexpectedly frequent (4/16) T‐ALL was not observed. Other criteria of poor prognosis (high white blood cell count, CNS involvement, organomegaly, high serum LDH) were similar to those reported in young adults. 12 patients were treated with an OPAL‐derived regimen, 4 with the MAV regimen, 1 with vincristine and prednisone, 1 with 6‐mercaptopurine. Complete remission was achieved in 8 patients but proved short‐lived. 5 patients died in aplasia and 5 failed to achieve remission. Median survival for the whole group was 3 months. ALL in the elderly raises the dilemma of an aggressive disease in patients with poor tolerance to intensive therapy.