engleski

Clonal chromosomal aberrations in different age group of children with acute leukemia

Acute leukemias are dominant malignomas in children and are characterized by marked biologic heterogeneity. Some 85% of childhood hemoblastoses are acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL), while acute nonlymphocytic leukemias (ANLL) are less frequent. In this work we present the results of cytogenetic investigation in our group of children with acute leukemias. The aim of this investigation is to determine the frequency and types of acquired chromosomal abnormalities in different morphologic subtypes of disease in relation to the age of patients. Our study has included 55 children with ALL and 30 children with ANLL. The patients were separated into three groups according to age: 0-1, 1-10 and 10-15 years. The investigations were performed on slides obtained by short term bone marrow culture and stained by G- banding method. Clonal chromosomal aberrations were detected in 63% and 64% of children with ALL and ANLL repectivelly. Abnormalities were identified in each of three age groups, however, the frequency of acquired abnormality was different between the groups. In children with ANLL the highest frequency of clonal aberrations was observed in the group from 1-10 years (74%) while the frequency decresed in older patients. The clonal abnormalities were identified in all three children with ALL up to 12 months old, and in 86% of children older than 10 years at diagnosis. Comparison of our data with that from the literature revealed some differences and similarity. This hetrogeneity may be attribute to the differences in the methodological approach and to the biological variability between different geographic and ethnic groups.

Acute leukemia; children; age; chromosome aberrations

nije evidentirano