Association of an Inversion of Chromosome 16 with Abnormal Marrow Eosinophils in Acute Myelomonocytic Leukemia

Abstract

We identified 18 patients with an inversion of chromosome 16, inv(16)(p13q22), among 308 patients with newly diagnosed acute nonlymphocytic leukemia. Each of these 18 patients had acute myelomonocytic leukemia (M4 subtype) and eosinophils with distinctly abnormal morphology, cytochemical staining, and ultrastructure. These eosinophils constituted from 1 to 33 per cent of the nucleated marrow cells. In our series, every patient with acute myelomonocytic leukemia and abnormal eosinophils also had an abnormal chromosome 16. This subgroup of M4 patients had a good response to intensive therapy designed to induce remission; 13 of 17 treated patients entered a complete remission, and 10 remain in first remission. Thus, patients with an inversion of chromosome 16 appear to represent a unique cytogenetic-clinicopathological subtype of acute nonlymphocytic leukemia with a favorable prognosis.

Significance of chimerism in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: new variations on an old theme

“…The pericentric inversion inv(16) (p13q22) is one of the most frequently occurring chromosomal rearrangements detected in the neoplasm, which has been reported to account for approximately 16% of all AMLs. 48,[52][53][54] The breakpoint involved in the inv(16) has recently been cloned and shown to involve the core binding factor b-gene (CBFb) on chromosome 16q22 and the smooth muscle heavy chain (MYH11) on 16p13. The formation of the chimeric CBFb/MYH11 fusion gene results in the disruption of the normal interaction of the transcription factor complex a, b and ETS.…”

Old and new prognostic factors in acute myeloid leukemia with deranged core‐binding factor beta

“…Patients with CBFb-AML account for about 5-8% of adults with de novo AML and they are frequently associated with specific characteristics. This AML subset is morphologically associated with the French-American-British (FAB) M4 subtype with an abnormal eosinophil component (M4eo) and extramedullary involvement may be present [3][4][5][6][7][8][9].…”

Molecular remission in PCR-positive acute myeloid leukemia patients with inv(16): role of bone marrow transplantation procedures

“…It has been shown that peripheral blood stem collections contain Hodgkin's cells. 3 Here we show the use of selected stem cells (CD34 + ) for autografting after high-dose chemotherapy.…”

“…[2][3][4] The molecular marker is detectable by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction assay (RT-PCR) [5][6][7][8][9] on RNA at the time of diagnosis, and could be particularly useful for monitoring MRD in patients who achieve complete clinical remission (CCR) after induction therapy. [10][11][12][13] Marcucci et al 14 and several other authors [10][11][12][13] have reported favorable clinical outcomes despite persistence of CBF␤/MYH11 transcripts detected by RT-PCR; similar findings have been reported for another core-binding-factor altered in AML, 15,16 in which positive expression of AML1-ETO transcript can persist after induction and consolidation chemotherapy without evidence of hematological relapse.…”