Cytogenetic Diagnostics and Outcome in a Series of Thirty Three Greek Pediatric Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) accounting for approximately 17% of all childhood acute leukemias, arises either de novo or from a backround of myelodysplasia or previous chemotherapy. Cytogenetics is considered one of the most valuable prognostic determinants in AML while current risk–group classification in the limited cases of pediatric AML, is mainly based on cytogenetics and early treatment response. We reviewed the clinical and cytogenetic characteristics and the outcomes of 33 cases of childhood AML between 1997 and 2007 in order to investigate the incidence of the main FAB subtypes, the incidence of primary AML compared to secondary AML (s-AML) and the correlation between specific chromosome abnormalities and outcome in greek pediatric AML patients. Chromosome studies were performed on unstimulated bone marrow cells, derived from 33 pediatric AML patients, who were