Myeloid blasts.
Thirty two case are available: 2 chronic myeloproliferative cases, 18 myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), and 12 cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Diagnoses were: chronic myelogenous leukemia harbouring the t(9;22)(q34;q11) (CML, 1 case), polycythemia vera (PV, 1 case), myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative overlap syndrome (MDS/MPN, 1 case), refractory anemia (RA, 1 case), refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB, RAEB-I, RAEB-II, 5 cases), refractory cytopenia with multilineage dysplasia (RCMD, 2 cases), RCMD with ring sideroblasts (RCMD-RS, 1 case), unclassifiable MDS (MDS-U, 1 case), low grade MDS NOS (7 cases); AML NOS (3 cases), AML-M0 (1 case), AML-M1 (1 case), AML-M2 (3 cases), AML-M4 (2 cases) and AML- M5 (2 cases). Ten of the twelve AML cases were classified either as having multilineage dysplasia or as arising from MDS (chronic myelomonocytic leukemia , refractory anemia). In two cases, dysplasia could not be assessed (Harrison et al., 1998; Gozzetti et al., 2003; Royer-Pekora et al., 2003; Bousquet et al., 2008; Dvorak et al., 2014; McCormick et al., 2014; Ruano and Shetty, unpublished observation)
The authors of this paper describe two additional cases, above included (Ruano and Shetty, unpublished observation): one in a patient diagnosed with myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative (MDS/MPN) overlap syndrome best classified as atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), BCR/ABL negative; another patient presented with acute monoblastic leukemia, later classified as AML with myelodysplasia-related changes after obtaining knowledge on the cytogenetic findings.

Two cases consisted of a 44 year old female and a 54 year old male (Ruano and Shetty, unpublished observation). Altogether, there were 26 male and 6 female patients. Median age at diagnosis was 56-57 years (range 37-74).

The authors describe a case of a 54 year old male that initially presented with ankle swelling and left upper quadrant discomfort noted to have marked leukocytosis (WBC=237,000/µL) and macrocytic anemia (Hb=10.1 g/dL ; MCV=101.9 fl) associated with massive splenomegaly. This patient was diagnosed with atypical CML, BCR/ABL negative. The second patient is a 44 year old female with no significant medical history that presented with upper and lower extremity pain and found to be pancytopenic with 2% circulating blasts. She was eventually diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia with myelodysplasia-related changes.

Five of the seven cases reported by Dvorak et al., 2014 showed marked megakaryocytic dysplasia.
The case described by McCormick et al., 2014 showed a hypercellular bone marrow (95%) with increased megakaryoctyes ranging from small hypolobated forms to large and normally lobated.
From the cases reported by the authors of this paper, the bone marrow aspirate and biopsy from the 54 year old patient with atypical CML, BCR/ABL negative showed granulocytic hyperplasia with left shift with occasional dyserythropoiesis and dysgranulopoiesis. There was more prominent dysmegakaryopoiesis consisting of small, hypolobated forms with occasional micromegakaryocytes. Blasts represented 3% of bone marrow elements. One year later, the patient presented with acute myeloid leukemia with 40% circulating blasts expressing CD5, CD7, CD13, CD33, CD34, CD117, and HLA-DR, with dim expression of CD56. Two follow-up bone marrows showed persistent involvement by AML.
The bone marrow aspirate and biopsy from the 44 year old female with AML showed 89% blasts expressing CD13 (dim), CD33, CD38, CD45 (dim), CD56, CD64, CD65 (bright), HLA-DR, and CD117 (on a subset). performed on the bone marrow aspirate shows 69% blasts which are positive for CD4, CD13 (dim), CD33, CD38, CD45 (dim), CD56, CD64, CD65 (bright), HLA-DR, and CD117 (subset). Cytochemical stains showed that the blasts were negative for myeloperoxidase and positive for alpha-naphthyl butyrate esterase. See Figure 2 and 3.

The patient reported by Gozzeti et al., 2003 was treated with cytarabine for 7 days, achieving a partial remission. His disease progressed afterwards for what he was treated with various chemotherapeutic regimens but died 1 year after diagnosis. The patient reported by Royer-Pokora et al., 2003 was treated with imatinib achieving complete response that lasted for 22 months, when the case report was written.
The seven patients reported by Dvorak et al., 2014 were treated either with symptomatic or cytoreductive therapy. One patient with deletion 5q was treated with lenalidomide but had only a partial response to treatment. Two patients underwent peripheral stem cell transplantation, after which one had stable disease but the other transformed to AML. The median overall survival for this small cohort was 72 months and at the time of publication, 2 patients were alive and 5 had died.
The patient reported by McCormick et al., 2014 remained clinically stable 70 months after initial diagnosis, requiring only periodic phlebotomies.
The 54 year old patient described by this pages authors was initially treated with hydroxyurea after being diagnosed with atypical CML. He transformed to AML 14 months later and was treated with 7+3, ara-C and idarubicin. Due to persistent disease he was started on a new cycle of chemotherapy which was complicated by fever and altered mental status eventually leading to patients death approximately 1 month later. The 44 year old patient diagnosed with AML with myelodysplasia related changes was treated with 7+3 regimen, with cytarabine and daunorubicin and had 2 negative bone marrows at 14 days and 1 month after treatment was started. She remained clinically stable but was lost to follow-up 1 year after diagnosis.

Dvorak et al., 2014 determined that the median survival of MDS patients harbouring the t(2;11)(p21;q23) was significantly greater than that of MDS patients with complex karyotype or trisomy 8 as sole abnormality (72 vs 7.5 and 57 months, respectively, p=0.0007). Other studies have placed the t(2;11)(p21;q23) in the intermediate risk category. However, the MLL gene status was not evaluated. Studies in larger groups of patients, also possibly including patients with AML, are needed in order to determine if the t(2;11)(p21;q23) without MLL rearrangement truly conveys a better prognosis.