Objective: To explore the relation of cytogenetic changes in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) to the diagnosis, clinical staging and therapy protocol of the disease.
Methods: According to established diagnostic criteria, 155 CML patients were divided into 3 groups and 3 clinical phases were identified on the basis of their Sokal scores. The bone marrow was obtained for G banding and karyotype analysis.
Results: It was found that 148 patients (95.5%) carried Ph1 chromosome. Among the other 7 cases without Ph1 chromosome, 4 were identified as being bcr/abl fusion gene positive. The ratio of additional cytogenetic abnormalities were higher in patients in blast crisis or accelerated phase than in patients in chronic phase.
Conclusion: CML consists of a group of diseases with high heterogeneity, and the prognoses of the patients mostly depend on the malignancy of the tumor. The occurrence of additional chromosomal abnormality is highly correlative with the risk index and clinical staging of the patients, which may serve prognostic purposes. Conventional cytogenetic analysis may help evaluate the therapeutic effect and make subsequent clinical decisions, and may also facilitate new karyotype identification.