1987 Volume 28 Issue 4 Pages 634-640
Acute myeloblastic leukemia associated with double minute chromosomes (DMS) is reported. This patient, diagnosed as M2 according to French-American-British (FAB) classification, showed DMS in bone marrow aspirates before any chemotherapy. Karyotypes was as follows: 44, XX, -8, -9, -17, +der (8) t (8; 17) (q13; q11.2). It is thought that DMS derived their origin from leukemic cells, because, during partial remission, they disappeared and abnormal karyotype was not found. After short time of partial remission, she relapsed as monocytic appearance with the increase of lysozyme. The number of DMS per cell decreased and that of chromosome was ranged between hypodiploid and hypotetraploid, associated with additional abnormalities, including 2p-, 5p+ and the other marker chromosome. The presence of DMS is generally thought to indicate poor prognosis, but the number of DMS per cell did not parallel to the increase of leukemic cells. Therefore, it follows that the karyotypic abnormalities play a great role in prognosis, besides the number of DMS.
