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Chromosome studies of 18 adults with acute leukemia are reported. Blood cultures showed few abnormalities, but abnormal genotypes were found in each of the 11 patients in whom direct examinations of the bone marrow were made. The chromosome abnormalities were unique in each patient and consisted of both numerical and structural changes; they could not be correlated with any clinical or hematologic features. When the marrow was examined repeatedly in individual patients, the abnormalities persisted regardless of the stage of the disease, though some diminution in their number occurred during remissions. The findings suggest that the chromosome abnormalities are intimately associated with, and perhaps an essential part of, the development of acute leukemia.
Fitzgerald et al. (Sat,) studied this question.