Clinical Information

Clonal chromosomal abnormalities play a central role in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, and treatment monitoring of pediatric hematologic malignancies. Whenever possible, it is best to do chromosome studies for neoplastic hematologic disorders on bone marrow. Bone marrow studies are more sensitive and the chances of finding metaphases are about 95%, compared with only a 60% chance for blood studies. When it is not possible to collect bone marrow, chromosome studies on blood may be useful.

When blood cells are cultured in a medium without mitogens, the observation of any chromosomally abnormal clone may be consistent with a neoplastic process.

Characteristic chromosome rearrangements and copy number patterns may help classify a pediatric hematologic malignancy. For example, t(1;19)(q23;p13.3) is typically observed in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma and t(8;21)(q22;q22) defines a specific subset of patients with acute myeloid leukemia; while t(7;14)(q35;q11.2) is associated with T-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma. Confirmation of classic gene fusions associated with the above translocations together with evaluation for other recurrent abnormalities are available within the appropriate Children's Oncology Group (COG) fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) panels; COGBF / B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia/Lymphoma (ALL), Children's Oncology Group Enrollment Testing, FISH, Varies; COGTF / T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia/Lymphoma (ALL), Children's Oncology Group Enrollment Testing, FISH, Varies; and COGMF / Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Children's Oncology Group Enrollment Testing, FISH, Varies. Some rearrangements identified by chromosomal analysis may be extremely rare but are known, recurrent entities for which the Mayo Clinic Genomics Laboratory has the most extensive catalogue of FISH testing to confirm the corollary gene fusions.

Metaphase FISH confirmation of classic translocations which are cryptic and not visually detectable by chromosome analysis [ie, t(12;21)] associated with ETV6/RUNX1 fusion) is performed as required by COG and is included as part of the electronic case submission by the Mayo Clinic Genomics Laboratory to COG for central review.

Additional cytogenetic techniques such as chromosomal microarray (CMAH / Chromosomal Microarray, Hematologic Disorders, Varies) may be helpful to resolve questions related to ploidy (hyperdiploid clone vs doubled hypodiploid clone) or to resolve certain clonal structural rearrangements such as the presence or absence of intrachromosomal amplification of chromosome 21 (iAMP21).