Genetic Studies on a Family with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia

Seven cases of myelogenous leukemia—two acute erythroleukemia (AEL), four acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), and one acute myelomonocytic leukemia (AMMoL)—were found in 22 members of three consecutive generations of a family in the past 16 years (1973–1989). By using cytogenetic, hematologic, and biochemical analyses of those surviving in this family, we also found four members who might develop leukemia in the future. Southern blot analysis of one of the four members and her father (an acute leukemia patient) with a v-ERBB probe showed that the gene abnormalities consisted of a c-ERBB rearrangement (hereditary) and a rearrangement/amplification of the same gene.