Chromosomal Changes in Human Tumors and Leukemias

Loss of the Y Chromosome from Bone Marrow Cells of Males with Myeloproliferative Disorders

“…Much speculation concerning the role of the Y chromosome has been published in the case reports of both forms of CML (see references listed in tables I and II). In contrast to the general view it appears from our col lected data that the CML patients with a missing Y chromosome in the affected cells have at the most only a slightly longer survival time than that found in patients with a Y chromosome [7,42], Furthermore, our data do not prove the hypothesis of Garson and Milligan [9] and of Sandberg and Sakurai [41] that the absence of the Y chromosome pro tects patients from entering a blastic phase. At least 12 of the patients list ed in tables I and II died in a blastic crisis.…”

“…In their group of males after the age of 79 years as much as approximately 75% of the sub [33], by Walker [45], by Sandberg and Hossfeld [42] and on peripheral blood by the Edinburgh group -see review by Court Brown [4], In view of these observations two conclusions can be made: (1) In general, the loss of the Y chromosome in bone marrow cells is not an event which is consistently related to malignancy as is the case with the Ph1 chromosome. (2) The degree of hypoploidy varies considerably in the bone marrow cells of nonleukemic males listed as having a loss of the Y chromosome [35]; however, in CML patients often all of the bone marrow cells analyzed were Y-negative (table I, II).…”

“…Loss of the Y chromosome has not only been reported in myeloproli ferative disorders but also in other neoplasias such as bronchogenic carci noma [49], carcinoma of the larynx, acute lymphatic leukemia [44], epithelial tumors [49] and several other neoplasias [42].…”

Chromosome pulverization in blood diseases

“…"Spontaneous" PCC has been reported in some neoplasias (MILES and WOLLINSKA 1973) such as carcinoma of the bladder ( A~K I N 1979) and brain tumour (SANDBERG and HOSSFELD 1974). In blood diseases, evidence of PCC has been reported only in cases of acute myelocytic leukaemia associated with "megaloblastoid" erythroid maturation (WILLIAMS et al 1976) and in histiocytic medullary reticulosis (SHILOH et al 1979).…”

Y Chromosome Duplication: A Minor Route Evolutive Pattern in CML

“…There is a rather gener al agreement about a longer survival time in male patients missing the Y chromosome, as compared with those maintaining the Y chromosome [5, 20-22J. However, a recent review [4] has raised some criticism about these conclusions, and the suggestion that the absence of the Y chromosome protects patients from entering a blastic phase [20,22] has been reconsidered.The Y chromosome duplication seems to occur as a rare evolutive pattern of CML, and no speculation has been so far derived con cerning the importance of this aneuploidy.In this paper, two additional observa tions of Y chromosome duplication detected at the onset of blastic crisis (BC) of CML are reported. Comparison of these cases with the literature data suggest preliminary conclusions about the prognostic meaning of the Y chromosome gain.…”