Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

Myelodysplastic syndrome

Characterization of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) with T-cell large granular lymphocyte proliferations (LGL)

Leukemia volume 34, pages 3097–3099 (2020)Cite this article

Subjects

We read with interest the letter by Durrani et al. addressing large granular lymphocytic leukemia (LGL) coexistence with myeloid clones and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). To complement their findings, we report characteristics of a large cohort of MDS patients with coexisting LGL clonal expansion. Among 1177 patients with a verified MDS diagnosis who were tested for LGL by flow cytometry at the time of first referral, 322 (27%) patients had evidence of LGL clonal expansion. LGL clonal expansion was defined as a clone of any size with expression of LGL surface markers by flow cytometry that were compatible with an activated T-cell phenotype (commonly CD3+/CD8+/CD57+ and/or CD16+). The mean absolute LGL clone size was 305 cells/dl. T-cell receptor gene rearrangement (γ and/or β) was detected in 92% of the MDS/LGL cohort compared with 24% of MDS patients without a coexisting LGL clone. No difference was noted in baseline characteristics except for a significantly higher proportion of therapy-related MDS (t-MDS) cases in the MDS/LGL group (Table 1, P = 0.026).

Table 1 Baseline characteristics comparing MDS patients with coexisting LGL clone to MDS patients without LGL.
Full size table

There was no difference in median overall survival (OS) among MDS patients with or without a coexisting LGL clone (27 vs. 24 months (mo), respectively; P = 0.6), very low/low International Prognostic Scoring System-Revised (IPSS-R) (51 vs. 52 months, P = 0.4), IPSS-R intermediate risk (28 vs. 23 months, P = 0.8), and 15 vs. 10 months for high/very high risk IPSS-R categories, respectively (P = 0.08). The frequency of AML transformation was 19% among both groups.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Malignant Hematology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer center, Tampa, FL, USA

    Rami S. Komrokji, Najla al Ali, David Sallman, Eric Padron, Jeffrey Lancet & Lubomir Sokol

  2. Yale School of Nursing, New Haven, CT, USA

    Christa Varnadoe

  3. James A Haley Veterans Hospital, Tampa, FL, USA

    P. K. Burnette

  4. Formerly Department of Malignant Hematology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer center, Tampa, FL, USA

    Alan List

Authors
  1. Rami S. Komrokji
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Najla al Ali
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. David Sallman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Eric Padron
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Jeffrey Lancet
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Lubomir Sokol
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Christa Varnadoe
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. P. K. Burnette
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Alan List
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

RSK wrote manuscript, all authors contributed patients and or collected data and interrupted results. All authors approved final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rami S. Komrokji.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

RSK JAZZ: Speakers Bureau and consultancy; Novartis: Speakers Bureau and consultancy; Agios: Speaker bureau and Consultancy; Incyte: Consultancy; DSI: Consultancy; celgene: Consultancy; pfizer: Consultancy, AbbVie Speakers Bureau and consultancy. NAA no conflict of interest. EP: Incyte: Research Funding; Kura Oncology: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding. DS Celgene: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Celyad: Membership on an entity’s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Incyte: Speakers Bureau; Jazz: Research Funding; Novartis: Speakers Bureau; Abbvie: Speakers Bureau. JL no conflict of interest. LS no conflict of interest. CV no conflict of interest. PKB no conflict of interest. AL Celgene: Research Funding.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Komrokji, R.S., Ali, N.a., Sallman, D. et al. Characterization of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) with T-cell large granular lymphocyte proliferations (LGL). Leukemia 34, 3097–3099 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-020-0928-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41375-020-0928-4

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links