Leukaemia cytogenetics / H. Jackson Woodliff.

  • Woodliff, H. Jackson.
Date:
1971
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Leukaemia cytogenetics / H. Jackson Woodliff. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    chronic lymphocytic leukaemia 77 The significance of the abnormality has been debated (Court Brown, 1964; Abbott, 1966) and whilst it might well be of import¬ ance to the family in which it was described, it is not a general phenomenon and visible deletions of the G group chromosome are not a characteristic of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia analo¬ gous to the Ph chromosome of chronic granulocytic leukaemia. Autoradiographic evidence suggests that the Christchurch chromo¬ some is a G 22 rather than a G 21, the chromosome involved in G trisomy (Down's syndrome) and deleted in chronic granulocytic leukaemia. Superficial examination of metaphases may fail to reveal pseudodiploidy detectable by a more careful observation. Goh (1967a) analysed 230 metaphases from six patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and found pseudodiploidy in 95 (39 per cent) as compared with six (3 per cent) of 192 karyotypes obtained from normal controls; the abnormal chromosomes encountered included the giant A and D chromosomes, other marker chromo¬ somes and small metacentric chromosomes. Baserga and Castoldi (1965) found a pseudodiploid line in the bone marrow of a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and Ducos and Colombies (1968) have also reported an abnormal karyotype in two of three patients whose peripheral blood was cultured for six days. The findings of these abnormalities is of great interest, but the large amount of work required makes such tests impractical for routine diagnostic purposes; furthermore, Lawler et al. (1968) do not agree that there is a high frequency of pseudodiploid cells in untreated patients. Prognosis and Treatment No assessment has yet been made of the relationship between chromosomal abnormalities and prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. The patients with Christchurch chromosome do not appear to differ from other cases of chronic lymphocytic leukae¬ mia in the same age group but a study of the family suggests that the so-far unaffected carriers of this abnormality run a risk of developing the disorder. Survival figures are not normally given by those reporting abnormalities but we have analysed data on 27 deceased patients and found no correlation between the degree of aneuploidy and survival. There is no evidence that choice of treatment may be assisted by cytogenetic examination ; however, treatment may affect the chromosomes and these abnormalities