Nonrandom chromosome abnormalities in acute leukemia and dysmyelopoietic syndromes in patients with previously treated malignant disease.

Cytogenetic studies were performed on 26 patients who developed acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (ANLL) or a dysmyelopoietic syndrome after treatment of a primary malignancy. Fifteen patients had radiotherapy and chemotherapy, seven had only chemotherapy, and four had only radiotherapy. The median times from diagnosis of the initial disease to the development of bone marrow dysfunction for these treatment groups were 50, 46, and 49 mo, respectively. Twenty-five patients had an abnormal karyotype in myeloid cells. Loss of part or all of no. 5 and/or no. 7 was noted in 23 of 25 patients with aneuploidy. Loss of no. 5 was noted only in patients who previously had malignant lymphoma, whereas loss of no. 7 was seen in these patients as well as in those who had other malignancies. Abnormalities of both nos. 5 and 7 occurred in 53% of the patients treated with combined therapy and in only 27% of patients treated with either modality alone. Although these changes are distinctly different from those noted in lymphomas, they are similar to those seen in 25% of aneuploid patients with ANLL de novo.