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Cancer Genet Cytogenet 116:176–177 (2000)

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Trisomy 15 in Hematological Disorders

In connection with a recent article by Sinclair et al. [1] wewould like to share our experience. A summary of ourdata on trisomy 15 in hematological disorders is furnishedin Table 1.

A total of 24 of 22,746 cytogenetic cases referred to ourlaboratory for various hematological disorders were foundto have trisomy 15 as a clonal change. Ten patients werefemale and 14 were male. The average age was 75.25 years(SD

6

9.3). Most of the patients had myeloid disorders(13). One patient had acute myeloid leukemia. In threechronic lymphoproliferative disorders, trisomy 15 was thesole clonal change. The mosaicism ranged from 6.6% to100%. Trisomy 15 was the sole change in 19 cases. In onecase, there was a questionable trisomy 8 with trisomy 15.Four male patients (4/14

5

28.6%) also had loss of the Ychromosome.

Consolidating our findings and the cases cited and re-ported in the paper by Sinclair et al. [1], we found the to-tal number of cases with trisomy 15 to be 77. A male biaswith 68.9% males and 31.4% females was present (

x

2

5

14.06 is significant at 0.005 level). The average age was67.8 years (SD

6

18.17). Most of the patients were old; theonly exceptions were the two patients with acute lym-phoid leukemia who were 6 and 19 years old. Trisomy 15was found mostly in cases with myeloid disorders(80.7%). Among the myeloid cases, the majority (38) hadmyelodysplastic syndromes, anemia, or myeloprolifera-tive disorders. Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was ob-served in 6 cases, acute lymphoid leukemia in 2 cases,and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, hairy cell leukemia, chroniclymphoid leukemia, and multiple myeloma in one caseeach. The case that is noteworthy had a trisomy 15 clone

Table 1

Summary of the data on trisomy 15 as the sole abnormality in cases with hematological disorders

No. Age/Sex DiagnosisPercentage of

trisomy 15 Karyotype

1 68/F Bilateral breast mass 15.8% 47,XX,

1

15[3]/46,XX[16]2 77/F Acute myeloid leukemia 75% 47,XX,

1

15[15]/46,XX[5]3 78/F NA 10% 47,XX,

1

15[3]/46,XX[27]4 87/F Aplastic anemia 5.1% 48,XX,

1

?8,

1

15[2]/46,XX[28]5 72/F Anemia 70% 47,XX,

1

15[14]/46,XX[6]6 74/F Erythroid and granulocytic

hyperplasia10% 47,XX,

1

15[2]/46,XX[18]

7 81/F Myelodysplasia 55% 48,XX,

1

X,

1

15[11]/46,XX[9]8 67/F Myelodysplasia 15% 47,XX,

1

15[3]/46,XX[17]9 74/F Thrombocytopenia 10.3% 47,XX,

1

15[3]/46,XX[26]10 58/F Pancytopenia 40% 47,XX,

1

15[8]/46,XX[12]11 47/M Myelodysplastic syndrome 78.9% 47,XY,

1

15[15]/46,XY[4]12 81/M Anemia 65% 46,X,

2

Y,

1

15[13]/46,XY[7]13 76/M Pancytopenia 22.2% 47,XY,

1

15[4]/46,XY[14]14 80/M Pancytopenia 100% 46,X,

2

Y,

1

15[20]15 83/M Hairy cell leukemia 6.6% 47,XY,

1

15[2]/46,XY[28]16 88/M Chronic lymphoid leukemia 100% 47,XY,

1

15[2]17 82/M Myelodysplastic syndrome 35% 47,XY,

1

15[7]/46,XY[13]18 87/M Multiple myeloma 70% 47,XY,

1

15[14]/46,XY[6]19 75/M Thrombocytopenia 26.7% 47,XY,

1

15[8]/46,XY[22]20 70/M Hematologic malignancy 15% 47,XY,

1

15[3]/45,X,

2

Y[3]/46,XY[16]21 77/M Leukemia 46.7% 47,XY,

1

15[14]/46,XY[16]22 68/M Polycythemia 33.3% 47,XY,

1

15[13]/46,XY[17]23 81/M Hematological malignancy 14.3% 46,X,

2

Y,

1

15[4]/46,XY[24]24 75/M Anemia 55% 46,X,

2

Y,

1

15[11]/46,XY[9]

Abbreviation:

NA, not applicable.

Trisomy 15 in Hematological Disorders

177

when AML was diagnosed; it disappeared when the pa-tient was in remission and reappeared at relapse, with ad-ditional change but in a side line [1]. Loss of the Y chro-mosome was the accompanying change in 16 males.

Sinclair et al. [1] proposed that the trisomy 15 associationwith

2

Y may be due to an underlying age effect. Although inthe normal population loss of sex chromosomes is known tooccur with age, a gain of chromosome 15 with age has notbeen reported. Therefore, other more direct evidence is nec-essary before the age effect can be accepted for trisomy 15.

In conclusion, trisomy 15 is a relatively rare occurrencein hematologic malignancy. In most cases,

1

15 is associ-ated with myeloid disorders. There is no report of trans-formation to leukemia. This abnormality is generally de-tected in older patients. There appears to be a male bias.

Frequently, trisomy 15 is associated with the loss of the Ychromosome in males. Trisomy 15 is a primary changethat seems to be associated with a less-aggressive hemato-logical state than seen in other aneuploidies.

K. S. REDDY Department of CytogeneticsA. SBEITI Quest Diagnostics Inc.

San Juan Capistrano, California, USA

REFERENCES

1. Sinclair EJ, Potter AM, Watmore AE, Fitchett M, Ross F (1998):Trisomy 15 associated with loss of the Y chromosome in bonemarrow: a possible new aging effect. Cancer Genet Cytogenet105:20–23.