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Clinical features of childhood acute myeloid leukaemia with specific gene rearrangements

Leukemia volume 18, pages 1427–1429 (2004)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

Specific gene rearrangements seem to distinguish distinct subsets of acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) with different features and prognosis, and some reports suggest that the epidemiological distribution of AML could vary among countries.1, 2 To date, cytogenetic examination has been used to study the frequency of these genetic alterations in a large series of children3, 4, 5 with AML; nevertheless, in a proportion of cases, these gene rearrangements may be cryptic and undetectable by conventional cytogenetic techniques.6, 7 To evaluate the frequency of specific gene rearrangements, the corresponding clinical morphological features at diagnosis and the potential prognostic impact on patients’ long-term survival, we screened by RT-PCR five different chimaeric transcripts (AML1-ETO, CBFβ-MYH11, PML-RARα, MLL-AF9 and BCR-ABL) in a series of 270 Italian children with AML, treated with AIEOP-LAM 87–92, BFM 83-93 and AIDA protocols between 1988 and 1998, and whose RNA were available and morphology had been centrally reviewed.

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Figure 1

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Acknowledgements

We thank Professor G Valsecchi for her helpful suggestions, Ms S Disarò for excellent technical assistance, Dr A Leszl for cytogenetic data and Dr C Case for linguistic consultancy. We are grateful to all the clinicians of the participating AIEOP centres for clinical data. We also thank S Fenu, L Sainati, A Cantù Rajnoldi and G Basso for the morphological review. This research was supported by Fondazione Città della Speranza and and Prog.Fin. 2001/01/X/000177 Ministero Salute OBG, MIUR 60-40% and CNR Progetto Oncologia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, University of Padova, Italy

    E Frascella, M Pigazzi, C Zampieron & G Basso

  2. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, University of Bologna, Italy

    R Rondelli & A Pession

  3. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, University of Torino, Italy

    F Fagioli

  4. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, University of Pisa, Italy

    C Favre

  5. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, University of Firenze, Italy

    A A Lippi

  6. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, University of Pavia, Italy

    F Locatelli

  7. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, Bambino-Gesù Hospital, Roma, Italy

    M Luciani

  8. Department of Oncology A.O.R.N. Santobono-Pausilipon, Napoli, Italy

    G Menna

  9. Hematology-Oncology Units, Gaslini Institute, Genova, Italy

    C Micalizzi

  10. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Units, University of Monza, Italy

    C Rizzari

  11. Department of Hematology, University of Roma, Roma, Italy

    A M Testi

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  1. E Frascella
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  14. A Pession
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  15. G Basso
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Correspondence to E Frascella.

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Frascella, E., Rondelli, R., Pigazzi, M. et al. Clinical features of childhood acute myeloid leukaemia with specific gene rearrangements. Leukemia 18, 1427–1429 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2403410

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