Clinical impact of the clone size in MDS cases with monosomy 7 or 7q deletion, trisomy 8, 20q deletion and loss of Y chromosome.

The clone size has been postulated as a prognostic factor in myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), though it has not been studied systematically. We tested its impact (<100% vs. 100%) in a population of 216 MDS with chromosome 7 abnormalities (-7/7q-) (n=84), trisomy 8 (n=99), 20q deletion (n=28) and loss of Y chromosome (n=26). Focusing on the survival the bad prognosis of -7/7q- was independent of the clone size (9.3 vs. 5.0 months, P=0.188, not significant) but trisomy 8 cases with 100% aberrant metaphases did reveal a worse prognosis (13.9 vs. 5.9 months, P=0.003).
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