Geographic Heterogeneity of Cytogenetic Characteristics of Acute Myeloid Leukemia in the early detection: A Comparative Study of Iranian and Indian adult Patients

Background: Acute Meyloid Leukemia (AML) in adults is known to be a heterogeneous disease with diverse chromosome abnormalities. Some of these chromosome abnormalities are found with a high incidence in populations from specific geographical areas and ethnic societies. Therefore, we studied the cytogenetic features of AML cases in contrasting societies of Iran and India.

Methods: Cytogenetic investigation was performed in various subtypes of AML with unstimulated short-term culture and High Resolution Cell Synchronization with some modification.

Results: Cytogenetically, Iranian M3 displayed a higher frequency of t(15;17) than Indian M3 (33.8% vs 19.3%) followed by M2 [t(8;21) (27.7% vs 16.2%)] and M1 [t(9;22) (16.0% vs 11.3%)]; whereas, inv(16)11q23 and numerical chromosomal aberrations in chromosome 5,7,8 occurred more frequently in Indian than Iranian.

Conclusion: These findings represented different cytogenetic characteristics of t(15;17) between the two populations. This is the first systematic cytogenetic study of an ethnic Iranian population. Extensive biological studies of AML in Iran and India and various countries to be needed to clarify the role of genetic as well as geographic heterogeneity in the pathogenesis of AML.