Molecular and cytogenetic abnormalities in acute myeloid leukemia: review and case studies

Objective: To study the frequency of mutations that maylead to a good or bad prognosis, as well as their relation withthe karyotype and immunophenotype in patients with acutemyeloid leukemia. Methods: Thirty samples of patients withacute myeloid leukemia were studied, in which FLT3-ITD, FLT3-TKD and NPM1 mutations were investigated. All samples weresubmitted to immunophenotyping and 25 to karyotyping. Results:An occurrence of 33.3% NPM1 mutation and an equal numberof FLT3-ITD mutation were observed. When only the cases withnormal karyotype were studied, this figures increased to 50 and40%, respectively. Eight percent of cases with normal karyotypeand genotype NPM1+/FLT3- were included in the group of acutemyeloid leukemia with good prognosis. The typical phenotypeof acute myeloid leukemia with normal karyotype and mutatedNPM1 (HLA-DR and CD34 negative) was not observed in thissmall series. Conclusion: Good prognosis cases were identifiedin this series, emphasizing the need to include new geneticmarkers in the diagnostic routine for the correct classification ofacute myeloid leukemia, to more properly estimate prognosis anddetermine treatment