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Epidemiology of AML

Geographic heterogeneity of cellular characteristics of acute myeloid leukemia: a comparative study of Australian and Japanese adult cases

Leukemia volume 14, pages 163–168 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

We assessed a large number of adults (368 from Australia and 494 from Japan) with de novo acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to define the biological differences between the two populations. In this study, AML was classified using the French–American–British (FAB) criteria into seven groups (M1–M7). M2 was more common in Japan than in Australia, whereas M4 occurred more frequently in Australia than in Japan. Other FAB subtypes were evenly distributed. Cytogenetically, Japanese M2 displayed a higher frequency of t(8;21) than Australian (33.1% vs 15.3%, P < 0.05). The t(15;17), inv/del(16), 11q23 aberrations and 5/7/8 abnormalities were seen at similar frequencies. immunophenotypically, japanese m4/m5 more frequently displayed cd13 and cd14 Than australian, whereas the stem cell markers, cd34 and hla-dr were observed at a relatively higher rate in australian m3 than in japanese m3. The b cell antigen, cd19 was more frequently seen in japanese m2 than in australian m2, but found more often in australian m5 than in japanese m5. In both populations, a close relationship was observed between the expression of cd19 and t(8;21). These findings suggest different biological characteristics of aml between the two populations, the main differences being generated by a higher frequency of t(8;21) chromosomal abnormality in japanese aml.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Grant from Japan Foundation for Aging and Health and in part by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, and for Cancer Research from the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan. We are grateful to Dr A Enno and Ms S Wilson (Newcastle Mater Hospital, New South Wales (NSW), Australia), Dr J Isbister, Dr DDF Ma and Mr M Piza (Royal North Shore Hospital, NSW, Australia), Dr D Rosenfeld (Liverpool Hospital, NSW, Australia), Dr A Dodds and Ms S Rhodes (St Vincent's Hospital, NSW, Australia), Dr C Tiley (Gosford Hospital, NSW, Australia), Dr G Crane and Dr JW Hewson (Concord Hospital, NSW, Australia), Ms P Stavros (Westmead Hospital, NSW, Australia) and members of the Japanese Cooperative Group of Leukemia/Lymphoma; Drs H Dohy and T Kyo (Hiroshima Red Cross Hospital, Hiroshima), K Nasu, S Doi and H Uchino (Osaka Red Cross Hospital, Osaka), H Tsutani and T Ueda (Fukui Medical College, Fukui), H Miwa, S Kageyama, K Nishii, A Otsuji, T Sekine and M Mizutani (Mie University, Tsu), K Kawakami and I Tanaka (Suzuka Kaisei Hospital, Suzuka), H Anazawa and C Ohta (Matsusaka Chuo Hospital, Matsusaka) for providing patients’ material and data. We are also grateful to Drs E Miyanishi, K Tsuji, T Ideda, M Tanigawa, S Tamaki and A Kato (Yamada Red Cross Hospital, Misono, Japan) for providing this opportunity to perform a comparative study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Second Department of Internal Medicine, Mie University School of Medicine, Tsu, Japan

    K Nakase, K Kita & H Shiku

  2. The Department of Haematology, Westmead Hospital, Westmead, New South Wales, Australia

    K Bradstock, M Sartor, D Gottlieb & K Byth

  3. The Department of Hematology, Research Institute of Nuclear Medicine and Biology, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

    N Kamada

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  1. K Nakase
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Nakase, K., Bradstock, K., Sartor, M. et al. Geographic heterogeneity of cellular characteristics of acute myeloid leukemia: a comparative study of Australian and Japanese adult cases. Leukemia 14, 163–168 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2401638

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