Abstract
Granulocyte-macrophage (GM) -colony formation was suppressed in patients with acute myelocytic leukemia (AML) at diagnosis and relapse but normal colony formation was observed in complete remission. In order to investigate the relationship between GM-colony formation and the progress of other malignancies, an in vitro colony formation assay was performed in 21 patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML). In 12 patients with chronic phase (CP) CML, GM-colony formation was not different from that in normal control (66.2±8.6 vs. 82.0±15.2/dish, not significant; NS : n=12, 5 respectively). However, GM-colony formation was significantly low in patients with CML at blastic crisis (BC) (4.7± 1.6/dish) compared with both patients with CP and the control group (P <0.001). In five patients with CML-CP, GM-colony formation was observed after the transformation to BC. Colony formation was significantly decreased after transformation (54.4±10.5 vs. 3.6±3.0/dish, P <0.001; n=5).
