Cytobiological and clinicobiological features of AML with 11q23 chromosome abnormalities

To investigate the interrelationship among morphology, immunology and clinical features in adult acute myeloid leukemia cases with 11q23 chromosome abnormalities, 210 newly diagnosed AML patients were retrospectively analyzed by cell morphology, immunophenotyping, G-banding or R-bamding analysis and clinical features. The results showed that 13 cases were found with 11q23 rearrangements or deletion (the incidence rate was 6.19%.), totally 84.6% showed the involvement with the monocytic lineage. Immunophenotyping tests indicated that AML cases with 11q23 abnormalities usually expressed the marker molecules of hematopoietic stem or progenitor cells, monocytic lineage cells, such as CD34, CD117, CD14, CD15 and CD11b. The complete remission rate of the cases with 11q23 abnormalities was comparable to that of the cases with normal karyotype (P = 0.075), but the median disease-free survival in the former was significantly lower than that in the latter (P < 0.001). It is concluded that the category AML with 11q23 abnormalities accounts for 6.19% of all the newly diagnosed AML cases, that seems to be closely associated with monocytic differentiation blocking with a dismal prognosis.