Hematogones are markedly decreased in chronic myeloid leukemia: Multiparametric flow cytometric analysis

Past studies have shown decreased hematogones in the bone marrow of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes and acquired aplastic anemia. In this study, we examined the bone marrow of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (n = 33, mean age 49 years, age range 2-83 years) for the presence of hematogones and compared their frequency with that of age-matched controls (n = 50). We found that the percentages of total and stage I hematogones were decreased in chronic myeloid leukemia at diagnosis (n = 25) and at follow-up post therapy (n = 8) when compared to age-matched controls (diagnosis, total: 0.29% vs. 0.87%, p = 0.001; diagnosis, stage I: 0.06% vs. 0.20%, p = 0.008; follow-up, total: 0.17% vs. 0.87%, p < 0.001; follow-up, stage I: 0.04 vs. 0.20, p = 0.003). We also found a significant decrease in the number of natural killer cells in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia at diagnosis. Further studies are warranted to elucidate the mechanism of hematogone decrease in chronic myeloid leukemia and whether this finding also applies to other myeloproliferative neoplasms.