Pediatric myelodysplasia: a study of 68 children and a new prognostic scoring system

Clinical, morphologic, and cytogenetic features were examined in a group of 68 children with myelodysplasia (MDS) referred to a single institution between 1971–1991. The morphologic French-American-British (FAB) system of classification proved of limited value in this group of patients because 50% of the cases were categorized as chronic myelomonocytic leukemia and three patients with eosinophilia and MDS were unclassifiable. Cytogenetic analysis was performed in 63 cases and clonal abnormalities were detected in 55%; the most common chromosome involved was number 7. Modification of the FAB system to incorporate additional diagnostic features such as pretreatment fetal hemoglobin (Hb F) and cytogenetics allowed incorporation of the categories of juvenile chronic myeloid leukemia (JCML) and infantile monosomy 7 syndrome (IMo7). The resulting groups of patients had highly significant differences in survival (P = .00009). The overall 5-year survival for the patients was 31.9% (95% CI 21.7 to 44.1) and factors influencing prognosis included: modified FAB type, platelet count, Hb F level, and cytogenetic complexity. We developed a scoring system (“FPC”) where each of the following findings at diagnosis scored one point: HbF greater than 10%, platelets < or = 40 x 10(9)/L, and complex karyotypic changes (two or more clonal structural/numerical abnormalities), which produced groups with highly significant differences, patients with a score of 0 having a 5-year survival of 61.6% (CI 33% to 84%), whereas those with a score of two or three all died within 4 years of diagnosis. The revised classification and scoring system may prove helpful in making treatment choices in pediatric MDS and now needs to be tested prospectively in large scale population-based studies.