Flow Cytometric Assessment of Chronic Myeloid Neoplasms

Flow cytometry immunophenotyping of the hematopoietic cells from the bone marrow can help with diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy of chronic myeloid neoplasms. Unlike with B-cell neoplasms, there is no simple phenotypic test to substitute for clonality. Therefore, antigen panels to evaluate myeloid neoplasms are larger, and the gating strategies more complex than for lymphoid neoplasms. The number of phenotypic abnormalities in hematopoietic cells correlates with disease severity and cytogenetic complexity, and can be integrated into a scoring system for diagnostic and prognostic purposes. However, flow cytometry remains only an adjunct diagnostic modality.