Different prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia harboring monosomal karyotype with total or partial monosomies determined by FISH: Retrospective PALG study

A monosomal karyotype (MK) was identified by banding techniques (BT) in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, BT may be insufficient to determine the actual loss of a complete chromosome, especially in complex karyotypes. We have investigated the effect of monosomy type, total (MK-t) and partial (MK-p), reevaluated by FISH, on prognosis. We have found that complete remission rate and probability of overall survival at 1 year was higher in MK-p (n = 27) than MK-t (n = 15) group (40% vs. 15.4%, P = 0.19 and 30% vs. 9%, P = 0.046, respectively). Our results indicate for the first time that monosomy type influences the prognosis of MK-AML.