prognostic significance of chromosomal abnormalities in childern with acute myeloid leukemia

Acute myeloid leukemia is a haematologic malignant disordercharacterized by uncontrolled proliferation of myeloid progenitors. AMLaccount for 15-20 percent of acute leukemias in children.Cytogenetic analysis of AML patients to identify differentchromosomal abnormalities, specially t(8;21) translocation which is themost common, is very important as a prognostic clue and for treatmentplanning because each abnormality has different prognosis and outcomeof treatment.The aim of this study was to demonstrate the percentage ofdifferent chromosomal abnormalities among AML children usingconventional karyotyping by G-banding technique and to demonstratet(8;21) translocation among those children using fluorescence in situhybridization (FISH) technique.Twenty (20) AML children were included in the study (I Imale and9 female) in the period between April 2000 and march 2002, in theOncology unit, Pediatric Department of Zagazig University Hospital. Allthe cases were between 2 months - 13 years old with peak age groupbetween 2-7 years (55%) (Table 1).The patients were subjected to full history taking, complete clinicalexamination, complete blood count, bone marrow examination.imrnunopheno-typing, liver function tests and cytogenetic analysis w-hichinclude. t(8;21) translocation by G-banding technique and ”FISH”technique.]20 SummaryandCone/itsionOur results showed that there was about 9% of our AML patients(successful cases) being positive for t(8;21) which is compatible withother reported data.We found significant correlation between positive cases for t(8;21)and median survival (Table 14). Since there was highly significantcorrelation between median survival and the fate and the response totreatment, so there is significant relation between positive cases and thefate and the response to treatment.