from Part II - Cell biology and pathobiology
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 July 2010
Introduction
Today, acute leukemia in children is managed through the use of risk-adapted therapy, requiring sensitive methods to detect the presence or absence of particular chromosomal abnormalities, one of the most important factors in stratifying patients by risk groups. Identifying genes involved in recurrent chromosomal abnormalities and understanding the roles of these genes in regulating cell growth and inducing malignant transformation can provide important insights into the altered biology of leukemic cells and potentially lead to improved treatment.
In this chapter, I review the most common conventional and molecular cytogenetic characteristics of the childhood acute leukemias and discuss their impact on clinical management strategies. Considerable attention is paid to abnormalities that were only recently identified in the lymphoid and myeloid leukemias, including the fusion genes involving the MLL (11q23), ETV6 (12p13), and CBFA2 (21q22) loci.
Conventional cytogenetics
Standard chromosomal analysis remains the method of choice for the initial screening for karyotypic abnormalities in leukemic cells. Conventional cytogenetic studies detect chromosomal abnormalities only in clones of mitotically active (metaphase) neoplastic cells and are particularly efficient in identifying abnormalities associated with acute leukemias in children and adolescents. These methods detect an abnormal clone in 90% of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 80% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). They also permit the study of all complex cytogenetic changes present in neoplastic cells, although complementary genetic methods are needed to detect cryptic abnormalities or to evaluate equivocal results.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.