Cytogenetic study of acute myeloid leukemia: comparison of data obtained in 1991-1996 and 1982-1988

The results of the cytogenetic study of bone marrow cells from 110 consecutive patients with primary acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who were diagnosed and treated between 1991 and 1996 at one tertiary care institution were compared with similar data obtained between 1982 and 1988 in 130 patients. Despite improvements in cytogenetic techniques (namely FISH methods, applied in all patients with abnormal karyotypes since 1990) in recent years we have observed a significantly lower frequency of abnormal karyotypes: 52.7% versus 77.7% (p = 0.001). This was mainly due to the decreased frequency of patients with +8, -5, -7 and inv(16). The survival rate (excluding the patients who underwent a bone marrow transplantation) was only slightly increased.