Age-specific incidence rates for cytogenetically-defined subtypes of acute myeloid leukaemia

Abstract

It is generally considered that most cancers arise following the accumulation of several genetic events and that as a consequence its incidence increases with age. We report a cytogenetic subgroup of acute myeloid leukaemia whose incidence is independent of age. This observation indicates that acute myeloid leukaemia can develop via multiple pathways, and underlines the importance of cytogenetics in understanding this disease.

Genetic Profiles and Risk Stratification in Adult De Novo Acute Myeloid Leukaemia in Relation to Age, Gender, and Ethnicity: A Study from Malaysia

“…Findings from ten studies agreed with the frequency of translocation that decreased with age [ 9 , 11 , 36 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 42 , 44 ]. Nonetheless, this finding did not agree with several other studies [ 5 , 12 , 16 , 27 , 28 , 39 ]. These two abnormalities (deletion and translocation) possess different putative oncogenetic consequences and are likely to arise from different types of DNA damages, indicating two discrete groups [ 30 , 45 ].…”

“…Cytogenetic aberrations were detected in 51% of the cases, commensurable to other cohorts from various geographical locations (range 42–75% abnormalities) [ 13 , 14 , 18 , 27 , 28 , 30 , 42 , 43 ]. Balanced translocations in this cohort were comparable with other studies in other geographical regions.…”

“…Reports from some of the Asian countries disclosed the age of presentation of AML was 48 years (median) in Singapore [ 26 ], 51 years (mean) in Japan [ 16 ] and 38 years (median) in India [ 18 ] and 37.5 years (median) in Pakistan [ 17 ]. The age at presentation varied in studies from Europe, America, England, Arab and Africa, ranging between 45 to 71 years [ 3 , 11 , 13 , 14 , 28 , 29 ]. The age variations are not ascertained whether it is related to geographical regions or ethnicity or due to the patient referral system in the study region [ 26 ].…”

Population-based demographic study of karyotypes in 1709 patients with adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia

“…9 Favourable cytogenetic abnormalities, t(15;17), t(8;21) and inv(16) are known to occur more frequently in younger patients, 9,14,15 with a relatively constant incidence throughout life. 15,16 For each of these balanced translocation groups, a much larger proportion of patients are in the younger age decades, giving a more even age-related incidence, in contrast to the greater weighting towards the oldest age decades seen in trisomic and deletional abnormalities. Furthermore, t(15;17), t(9;11) and inv(16) represent a significantly younger subset in our dataset.…”

“…15,18 In an attempt to verify crude incidence data for cytogenetic groups, our data were age/sex adjusted by decade, and now few cytogenetic groups showed clear sex predominance. Those that did were male predominant.…”