Haematological & Molecular Profile of Acute Myelogenous Leukaemia in India (Report‪)‬

Background & objectives: Recurrent balanced translocations are generally recognized to be a major parameter for prognostication in acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). The chromosomal translocation t(15;17) results in PML/RAR [alpha] fusion gene, t(8;21) results in AML1/ETO fusion gene and Inv 16 generates CBF [beta]/MYH11 fusion gene. Patients with these mutations have a good prognosis unlike abnormalities in chromosome 5 or 7 or FLT3 genes. Therefore, we screened the AmL patients for known specific genetic abnormalities that could lead to more definitive prognoses. Methods: A total of 113 AML patients were evaluated at diagnosis based on routine morphology and cytochemistry and classified according to the WHO criteria. The distribution of AML subtypes was M1(1), M2(32), M3(57), M4(14), M5(1), M6(1) and seven cases where morphological subtype could not be classified. RT-PCR was performed to identify PML/RAR [alpha], AML1/ETO, CBF [beta]/MYH11 and FLT3 internal tandem duplication (ITD).