Cytogenetics in Adult De Novo Acute Myeloid Leukemia: An Institutional Experience of a Predominantly Minority Population.

Cytogenetic findings at diagnosis correlate with prognosis in adult AML. Data have been largely derived from Caucasian populations. The purpose of this study was to define the frequency of cytogenetic abnormalities in de novo AML in a predominantly minority population and compare the data with that reported in the literature. We performed a retrospective review of cytogenetic findings at diagnosis in 40 adult AML patients diagnosed between 1999 and 2005. 17 African Americans, 11 Hispanics, 7 Caucasians, 1 Asian and 4 unknown ethnicity made up this population (72.5% minority). The age range was between 15 and 82 years. 28 patients (70%) were less than 55 years and 15 (37.5%) were less than 35 years of age. 75% of patients had abnormal karyotypes and 25% had normal karyotypes. Prognostic group categorization showed that 45% of patients were in the adverse group, 35% in the intermediate group and 20% in the favorable group. The most common cytogenetic finding was complex abnormalities occurring in 37.5% of patients. The frequency of complex abnormalities with adverse prognosis found in this predominantly minority population is higher than that reported in the literature (12% in SWOG/ECOG study; 6% in MRC AML 10 trial). Our study is limited by its small sample size. Further studies with a larger sample size would be needed to clarify the role of race/ethnicity in cytogenetic aberrations in AML.