[Analysis of DNA aneuploidy as a tumor marker]

DNA aneuploidy (DA) was examined in adult leukemia using flow cytometry, and the method and the clinical implication of DA as a tumor marker were evaluated. The method was simple, rapid, objective, quantitative and further did not need any mitotic cells, so was proved to be very useful for screening of DA. While, DA was detected in 50 (27%) out of 185 adult cases with various types of leukemia. The frequencies of DA in the subtypes of leukemia were 55% in ATL, 26% in ALL, 17% in ANLL, 26% in CML-BC and 6% in CLL, respectively. When compared with other subtypes, the frequency in ATL was significantly higher (p less than 0.01), which suggested a special entity of this disease. In general, however, the frequency of DA in leukemia was rather low, which indicated the difficulty in application of DA by itself in diagnosis of leukemia. While, in cases with DA, DA was very useful as a tumor marker in monitoring the clinical course, for example, in the detection of early relapse or recruitment of leukemic cells. Furthermore, DA was found to be a good prognostic factor which indicates a poor prognosis in cases with ANLL and CML-BC.