Chromosome examinations on six-hour cultures of unstimulated peripheral blood from some patients with childhood leukemia.

Six-hour cultures of unstimulated peripheral blood cells from patients with various types of childhood leukemias were examined for chromosome karyotypes. It was found that this method was suitable for the detection of characteristic chromosomal abnormalities in two cases of acute nonlymphoblastic leukemias (ANLL; FAB types M3 and M6) and in a case of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), but not in acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALL). The results suggest the usefulness of this simple method (possibly in combination with the thymidine boost technique of Yunis) in the cytogenetic diagnosis of some types of leukemias.