Predictors for prognosis of chronic myelocytic leukemia

Bone marrows from 30 newly diagnosed Ph+chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) (21 in chronic phase, CML-CP, 9 in accelerate phase, CML-AP) and 8 followed up patients in blast crisis (CML-BC) were tested by DNA strand breaks (%D value), DNA-aneuploidy, flow cytometry-cell surface antigen expression for CD15 and HLA-DR ratio. Our results showed that all these three parameters changed as the disease escalated. A very low value of %D and DNA-aneuploidy occurrences were high risk factors. Cell surface antigen expression CD15 and HLA-DR ratio measurement was simple and reliable. The ratio < 1.0 appeared earlier than morphology clarifying CML-AP and should be followed up regularly.