Treatment related myelodysplasia (t-MDS) or acute myeloid leukaemia (t-AML)

The study included 17 cases; t-MDS without progression to AML accounted for 35%, t-MDS with progression to AML for 18% and t-AML for the remaining 47% (M2 or M4 mainly); no case of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

11p15 rearrangements were found in 3% of t-MDS/t-AML and have been reported to be found in 5% of childhood t-MDS/t-AML; sex ratio: 4M/13F

Age at diagnosis of the primary disease 45 yrs (range 2-70); age at diagnosis of the t-MDS/t-AML: 50 yrs (range 4-75). Median interval was short: 54 mths (range: 11-189). Primary disease was a solid tumor in 47% of cases (in particular breast cancer) and a hematologic malignancy in 53%, treatment was chemotherapy (42%), or both chemotherapy and radiotherapy (58%). Treatment included topoisomerase II inhibitors in 71% of cases and alkylating agents in 76%.

Median survival was 13 mths, with 56% of patients surviving at 1 yr, and 33% at 2 yrs., a similar survival to what is found in treatment related leukemias with a 21q22 rearrangement

5 NUP98 -3 partner

This data is extracted from a very large study from an International Workshop on treatment related leukemias - restricted to balanced chromosome aberrations (i.e.: -5/del(5q)and -7/del(7q) not taken into account per see), published in Genes,Chromosomes and Cancer in 2002.