UHOD-ULUSLARARASI HEMATOLOJI-ONKOLOJI DERGISI, cilt.18, sa.4, ss.193-200, 2008 (SCI-Expanded)
Main objective of this study was to evaluate hematological, clinical and demographic features of our chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) patients according to different classification systems and prognostic variables. Thirty-seven consecutive patients with CMML diagnosed between February 1994 and December 2005 were evaluated retrospectively. Male and female ratio was 29/8. The median age at diagnosis was 72. Median follow-up time for all patients was 12 months (1-119 months). 70.3% of patients were classified as CMML-MP, others were classified as CMML-MD type according to FAB. When they were reclassified according to WHO, 86.5% of them were CMML-I and 13.5% were CMML-II. Karyotyping analysis could be made in only 22 patients. Median laboratory values were as follows: hemoglobin (Hb) 9 g/dL (range 6.1-14 g/dL), white blood cell (WBC) count 9.7 x 10(9)/L (rangel 1.8-157 x 10(9)/L), peripheral monocyte count 3.5 x 10(9)/L (range 1.2-50 x 10(9)/L), platelet count 85 x 10(9)/L (range 6-992 x 10(9)/L). Splenomegaly was observed in 11 patients (29.7%), 14 patients (37.9%) developed AML after a median time of 11 months (1-90 months) and survived a median of 1.5 months after leukemia transformation. The overall survival (OS) was 12 months (MD: 12 months, MP: 25 months, p= 0.3). International Prognostic Scoring Sytem (IPSS) could be applied to only 13 CMML-MD patients (WBC < 12 x 10(9)/L). Patients were also assessed using previously published scoring systems. Significant differencies between risk groups were found in case of OS (Modified Bournemouth score: p= 0.039, Duesseldorf score: p= 0.01, IPSS: p= 0.003). In multivariate analysis, only hemoglobine (< 10 g/dL) and bone marrow blast percentage (>= 10%) have been found to have a prognostic value (p= 0.03, p= 0.002). Although use of current prognostic scoring systems is encouraging in CMML more reliable disease spesific prognostic factors are needed for clinical decision making.