GENETIC FEATURES OF ACUTE MYELOID LEUKEMIA WITH t(8;21) IN ADULTS

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a molecularly heterogeneous group of malignant neoplasms. Cytogenetics and PCR diagnostics have traditionally been used to stratify patients with AML into three main categories based on risk: favorable, intermediate and unfavorable. This predictive category has an important influence on treatment decisions. In general, there was agreement that AML patients with favorable recurrent cytogenetic changes, eg, inv(16) and t(8,21), should be treated with conventional therapy, while patients at low risk (eg, hose with monosomic karyotype) should undergo allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). However, the decision to treat patients belonging to the intermediate risk category, which mainly includes AML with normal cytogenetics, has been difficult due to the high clinical and molecular heterogeneity of this group (constituting 40-50% of all cases of AML in adults).