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.
