Trisomy 14 in refractory anemia with excess of blasts in transformation

Trisomy 14 was demonstrated on four occasions over a 2-year period in the bone marrow cells of a 63-year-old patient with refractory anemia with excess of blasts in transformation (RAEB-t). Trisomy 14 as the sole karyotype abnormality has been documented in only six malignancies, namely, in two cases of acute leukemias, one Philadelphia-negative chronic myeloid leukemia, one pancytopenia, and in two colonic polyps. In hematologic neoplasms, this rare primary change preferentially occurs in elderly adults and seems exclusively associated with the myeloid cell lineage.