Prognostic value of bone marrow biopsy in chronic lymphoid leukemia. A study of 98 initial bone marrow biopsies

This study deals with bone marrow biopsies (MB) performed at the initial assessment of our 98 patients included in the French LLC 80 and LLC 85 trials. The prognostic value of the type of medullary invasion was confirmed, with a 6-year survival rate of 44% for the diffuse type (D = 42 patients) as against 68.4% for the non-diffuse type (ND = 56 patients) (p = 0.01). However, comparison of these 2 groups showed a significant difference for 19 of the 25 parameters studied, the differences always being to the prognostic disadvantage of the diffuse group. Bone marrow involvement (BMI) was very closely correlated with the ABC staging system (p less than 0.001). Despite more frequent disease progression among the cases of diffuse BMI, the survival rates in stage A patients were similar: 73.9% for 48 ND patients as against 59.6% for 19 D patients (p greater than 0.50). The ABC system of classification seems more discriminating than that recently proposed by Rozman specially for identifying the favorable groups.