Trisomy 16 as the sole anomaly in hematological malignancies. Three new cases and a short review.

We report on three cases, two with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and one with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), displaying trisomy 16 as the sole cytogenetic anomaly. In none of these cases was a concomitant inv(16)(p13q22) detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) or reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Summarizing the literature, only six other cases cytogenetically characterized by an isolated trisomy 16 have been reported in hematological malignancies. These patients had either MDS, acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML), myelofibrosis, or ALL. All but one of these cases were aged less than 50.