Interest of cytogenetic and FISH evaluation for prognosis evaluation in 198 patients with acute myeloid leukemia in first complete remission in a single institution

• Cytogenetic complete remission is not associated with prognosis in 198 AML patients.
• FISH remission is associated with prognosis in 52 AML patients who reached CR.
• FISH should be used to evaluate MRD in AML patients with abnormal karyotype.

The prognostic interest of cytogenetic remission and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) evaluation in patients with abnormal karyotype acute myeloid leukemia (AML) has been poorly studied. Among 198 patients that reached complete remission (CR), 24 did not reach cytogenetic remission (CyCR). CyCR had no prognosis impact, especially in patients with intermediate or unfavorable cytogenetic. Twenty of 52 evaluated patients in CyCR did not reach FISH CR. FISH CR was associated with better OS (p = 0.004) and tended to be associated with better disease-free survival (DFS) (p = 0.08). FISH evaluation may be a useful tool for prognosis evaluation and minimal residual disease (MRD) assessment in patients with abnormal cytogenetic AML.