Trisomy 8 in two newly diagnosed Chinese patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is one of the most common lymphoid malignancies in Western countries, but is infrequent in Asian populations. To verify the incidence of trisomy 8 in Chinese patients with CLL, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used in 140 CLL patients after routine chromosome analysis. Only two patients (1.4%) were found with trisomy 8, and the number of trisomy 8 cells was 8 and 10%, respectively. No other aberrations by "panel" probe FISH were found in these two patients. The chromosome karyotypes of two patients were 47,XY,+8[2]/49,XY,+14,+20,+21[2]/46,XY[16] and 47,XX,+8[2]/46,XX[18], respectively. Neither of the patients' present signs of myelodysplastic or myeloproliferative disorder appeared on the bone marrow aspirates and peripheral blood smear. Our study demonstrates that trisomy 8 is rare in CLL, and its role in prognosis of CLL remains unknown.