Prognostic value of metaphase-fluorescence in situ hybridization in
follow-up of patients with acute myeloid leukemia in remission
W El-Rifai, T Ruutu, E Elonen, L Volin and S Knuutila
Department of Medical Genetics, University of Helsinki, Finland.
The presence of residual leukemic cells was studied using metaphase-
fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in 22 patients with acute myeloid
leukemia treated with chemotherapy only or chemotherapy followed by
allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. The patients were followed up
during their complete remission (CR) for 4 to 108 months (median, 21
months). A total of 88 BM samples was studied. In most of the samples more
than 1,000 metaphase cells were analyzed. Residual leukemic cells were
detected in 9 of 22 patients (41%). All patients who had an increasing
and/or persisting level of abnormal cells in two or more subsequent samples
or whose initial samples contained more than 1% of abnormal cells relapsed
with one exception, in whom the later subsequent samples showed
disappearance of abnormal cells. The time span before the first positive
sample seems to be insignificant with regard to the outcome of relapse.
Absence or single occurrence of abnormal cells followed by their
disappearance was in agreement with CR in all the cases (16 patients). Our
results indicate that metaphase- FISH is a reliable tool in the
quantitation of residual leukemic cells and provides valuable prognostic
information for patients with AML.
Volume 89,
Issue 9,
pp. 3330-3334,
05/01/1997
Copyright © 1997 by The American Society of Hematology
