[Risk of leukemia in aplastic anemias]

Nowadays an increased risk of leucaemia in patients with aplastic anaemias (insufficiency of the bone marrow) is regarded as certain. If the literature of the last 10 years is analysed, the data concerning a leucaemic transformation amount to values between 0 and 16%. Among our clinical material of 108 patients, 38 of them living, 10 patients (correspondingly 9%) showed a leukaemic transformation. The temporary latency between diagnosing of the aplastic syndrome and the leucaemic transformation was maximally 20 years. By cytomorphological investigations, particularly of the judgment of anomalies of erythroblasts, no certain prognosis concerning a possible development of leucaemia. Also cultivation methods of myelopoietic stem cells by means of diffusion chamber and agar culture technique do not seem to allow a certain evidence on prognosis.