Skip to main content
Search

The cytogenetics of childhood acute leukemia

Published on May 31, 2016   52 min

Other Talks in the Series: Cancer Genetics

Please wait while the transcript is being prepared...
0:00
My name is Susana Raimondi. I work at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. I'm the director of the Cytogenetics Laboratory, and the presentation today will be about the cytogenetics of childhood acute leukemias.
0:17
Regarding the topic today, the molecular changes occur at the chromosome level, at the gene level, or DNA sequences. A full range of genetic abnormalities is indicative of cancer, but many of the chromosomal alterations observed by conventional cytogenetics alone do not induce leukemia. Sometimes, there are no obvious chromosomal alterations. And some microscopic genetics alterations may be of leukemogenic/actionable events.
0:54
Regarding the cytogenetics of acute lymphoblastic leukemia,
1:00
when we consider the pediatric population, about 15% of the cases are T-lineage. They do have recurring chromosomal aberrations. However, they do not have impact on the clinical behavior of these patients with T-lymphoblastic leukemia. There's others that have B-lineage leukemia. About 50% of the cases have either hyperdiploid with greater than 50 chromosomes, or a translocation that is cryptic that is called t 12;21. The other subsets are smaller. And some of them are strongly associated with very poor prognosis.
Show
Hide

The cytogenetics of childhood acute leukemia

Embed in course/own notes