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

The study included 9 cases; t-MDS without progression to AML accounted for 2 of 9 cases, t-MDS with progression to AML for 1 case and t-AML for the remaining 6 cases; no case of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

12p13 rearrangements were found in 2% of t-MDS/t-AML; sex ratio: 5M/4F

Age at diagnosis of the primary disease 40 yrs (range 11-64); age at diagnosis of the t-MDS/t-AML: 48 yrs (range 25-69). Median interval was relatively long: 81 mths (range: 18-223). Primary disease was a solid tumor in only 2 of 9 cases, and a hematologic malignancy in 7/9; treatment was chemotherapy (3/9), or both (6/9). Treatment included topoisomerase II inhibitors in 5 of 9 cases and alkylating agents in 8/9.

Median survival was very poor: 4 mths, with 15% of patients surviving at 1 yr, and none at 2 yrs.

5 ETV6 -3¹ partner where ETV6 is known to be involved

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.