Abstract: Objective: To investigate the clinical characteristics of the acute leukemia (AL) patients with complex karyotypes, and to elucidate their relationships with prognosis. Methods: A total of 33 AL patients with complex karyotypes were selected as the subjects (complex karyotype group), and 43 cases were randomly selected from 248 non-complex karyotype AL patients diagnosed at same time as the controls(non-complex karyotype group). The clinical and laboratory data of the patients in two groups were collected and the clinical characteristics and their relationships with prognosis were analyzed. Results: There were no significant differences in gender, age, hematological indexes before treatment, proportion of bone marrow primordial cells and extramedullary infiltration between the AL patients with complex karyotypes and non-complex karyotypes at same time (P>0.05); the constituent ratio of complex karyotypes AL in the AL patients was 11.7% (33/281).The complete remission (CR) rates of the AL patients in complex karyotype group and non-complex karyotype group were 59.4% (19/32) and 85.0% (34/40),there was significant difference between two groups (P=0.014); the CR rates of the acute myeloid leukemia (AML)patients in complex karyotype group and non-complex karyotype group were 47.6% (10/21) and 79.3% (23/29), there was significant difference between two groups (P=0.020).The CR rates of complex karyotypes AL patients with high karyotype complexity and low karyotype complexity were 41.2% (7/17) and 80.0% (12/15), there was significant difference between two groups(P=0.036).The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis showed that the median recurrence-free survival (RFS) and median overall survival (OS) of the patients in complex karyotype group and non-complex karyotype group were 162 and 462 d(P=0.002),256 and 769 d(P<0.01), and there were significant differences between two groups;the median OS of the AML and acute lymphoblastic leukemia(ALL) patients in complex karyotype group and non-complex karyotype group were 125 and 741 d (P<0.01), 293 and 939 d (P=0.008), and there were significant differences between two groups. Conclusion: The constituent ratio of complex karyotypes in the AL patients is relatively lower, and there are no significant differences in the general clinical characteristics, but the curative effect and prognosis are poor. The higher the chromosome complexity degree of the AL patients with complex karyotypes, the worse the curative effect.

Key words: acute leukemia, chromosome, complex karyotype, clinical feature, prognosis