Chromosome Findings in Secondary Acute Leukemias

Abstract

In 1970 several papers were published in the international medical literature pointing to an increased incidence of leukemia particularly in patients who had received chemotherapy because of multiple myeloma. In the same year, while working in the Roswell Park Memorial Institute in Buffalo, USA, the senior author, had the opportunity to analyse the chromosomes of leukemic cells of four such patients. Chromosome banding techniques were not available at that time. Nevertheless a number of remarkable findings became apparent: all cases were revealed to have profound numerical and structural anomalies, 3 out of 4 cases were hypodiploid, loss of chromosomes of groups 4–5 and 17–18 was noted in 2 cases, double minutes were seen in 2 cases [1]. During the following years more than 250 additional cases have been investigated; our early observations were confirmed, but more importantly, the introduction of banding techniques increased their significance considerably.