Clinical Implications of Cytogenetic Variants in Chronic Myelocytic Leukemia (CML)

Serial cytogenetic studies were performed on 179 chronic myelocytic leukemia patients (CML) at the Clinical Center of the National Institutes of Health. Patients were divided into 6 groups according to cytogenetic findings: Ph¹ negative (18 patients), Ph¹ negative with other chromosomal abnormalities (3 patients), Ph¹ positive (116 patients), Ph¹ positive and negative (10 patients), Ph¹ positive with other chromosomal abnormalities (24 patients), and Ph¹ positive which turned to other chromosomal abnormalities (8 patients). Patients who were Ph¹ negative and negative with other chromosomal abnormalities (11.8 per cent of total) had the shortest median survival, 12 to 15 months. In contrast, the median survival of patients in the Ph¹ positive groups was 31 to 40 months. The development of other chromosomal abnormalities in Ph¹ positive patients presaged the terminal stage of the disease.