[A method for predicting the course of chronic myeloleukemia]

The effects of a synthetic prostaglandin E1 (PGE1) analog on colony-forming activity in agar cultures of peripheral blood and bone marrow was studied in 28 patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and 9 hematologically healthy subjects. Addition of PGE1 to normal bone marrow culture was followed by a significant drop in the number of colonies per dish in 8 out of the 9 subjects. In leukemic patients, the effect was bizarre. It proved to be in correlation with survival thus suggesting that the effect of PGE1 on colony-forming activity of granulocyte-macrophage precursors be used in predicting survival in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia.