This study confirms the prognostic impact of FAB and WHO subtypes, recognizes the importance of RBC transfusion dependency and cytogenetics, and offers a simple and powerful CPSS for accurately assessing prognosis and planning therapy in patients with CMML.
Forty-two (81%) of the patients were classified using FAB criteria for blood and bone marrow morphology: refractory anemia (RA), 11; refractory anemia with ringed sideroblasts (RARS), four; refractory anemia with excess blasts (RAEB), 12; chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), three; refractory anemia with excess blasts in transformation (RAEB-T), 12 patients.Ten patients could not be categorized.
Five patients had myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) diagnosed according to the FAB nomenclature as chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) in two cases, refractory anemia with excess of blasts in transformation (RAEBt) in two cases, and refractory anemia with excess of blasts (RAEB) in one case.
Karyotypes of different cellular populations made after separation of bone marrow cells on a gradient of Percoll were evaluated in seven patients affected by chronic myelomonocytic leukemia diagnosed according to FAB criteria.