Immunophenotypic, cytogenetic and clinical features of 113 acute lymphoblastic leukaemia patients in China.

INTRODUCTION

The analysis of immunophenotype of the leukaemic cells has been of great importance for the diagnosis, classification and prognosis of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL).

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

One hundred and thirteen Chinese patients with ALL were immunophenotyped by fl ow cytometry and 74 cases were also subjected to karyotype analysis by G-banding technology.

RESULTS

Of the 113 Chinese ALL patients, 14.2% were identified as T-ALL and 85.8% as B-ALL. Myeloid antigen (MyAg) expression was documented in 34.9% of the cases analysed and CD13 was most commonly expressed MyAg in ALL patients (23.6%). MyAg positivity was higher in adult with ALL (47.6%) than in children with ALL (26.6%). Abnormal karyotypes were detected in 39 out of 74 (52.7%) cases. The clinical and biological characteristics of ALL patients between MyAg+ and MyAg- groups showed that increased white blood count (WBC) (>50 x 109/L), higher CD34 positivity and higher percentage of adult patients were found to be correlated with MyAg+ ALL.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate that the immunophenotype did have relevance to the abnormal cytogenetic changes and clinical features in ALL. Flow cytometry immunophenotype has become the most important method for diagnosis and typing of ALL.