Extra Chromosome 8?

[pigduck]

Hi everybody, I haven’t been posting here because my dad’s case transformed to AML in Jan 2007. He went through hell with the induction chemotherapy, contracting bacteria and fungus galore. He then underwent 1 round of Mylotarg that gave my father such wild side effects he almost didn’t make it. We transferred him to another hospital where they have decided to treat my father as an MDS patient again.

They say they’ve found an extra chromosome 8 and I’m not sure what that means. Would any of you be able to enlighten me? How does this differ from the other chromosomes and what are the treatments?

This extra chromosome 8 can also be known as trisomy 8?

You can follow my father’s story here:-
http://ubb-lls.leukemia-lymphoma.org/ubb/Forum21/HTML/001049.html

[eve]

my dad had a trisomy 8 – truly it was never really addressed much after it was discovered – the only difference it made to him was that he probably would have been on revlimid if he had a 5q deletion instead of trisomy 8

some sources say that people with a trisomy 8 have a more severe case of mds – i don’t know if that is completely accurate

good luck
eve

[chuckk333]

Go to the AA&MDS Int’l Fouondation website to ask specific questions.

https://www.toad.net/~aafa/aplastic/disease_information/ask_the_experts/index.php

I just posted a question on Chromosome abnormalites and they say I will get an answer in 2 to 3 days. (probably longer since this is a holiday weekend.)

[jaxem]

as i understand it & am often wrong so don’t write the gospel around it, there are 23 paired human chromosomes (cx). normal cx counts should be a “bisomy” # like a bisomy 8 (totally my wording). if biologists detect trisomy 8, there is one extra cx 8. my wife WAS a pentasomy 8 which means 3 extra cx 8’s were being made by the body. however, from what i’ve read, -5Q deletion means that there’s something missing on the ears or something of the 5th cx. what’s hard to understand personally is that my wife originally had pentasomy 8 (3 extra cx 8’s but following chemo, changed to monosomy 7 or one missing cx 7. ?? again, take this with a grain of salt as it’s my personal understanding of cx’s. i suggest putting “human chromosomes into your browser & read for yourself.

[g-masews]

The trisomy 8 chromosome change is one of the common abnormalities associated with MDS. Unfortunatly, those with that abnormality are more likely to transform to AML. The 5q deletion, alone, is a less risky chromosomal abnormality (aside from none, which is obviously best)also the 20q deletion, alone. Three or more abnormalities are considered high risk. The ones considered the greatest risk for AML are the trisomy 8 and the monosomy 7.

[pigduck]

Hmm… my father was treated as an AML patient. The only thing was that the hemotologist didn’t have anymore options so when we transferred him to another hospital, I guess they wanted to look at it differently.

The doctors did say my father’s case is not quite as severe as they thought it was and his MDS treatment can wait. First of all, they have to heal his lungs which are badly ravaged by bacteria and fungus.

Do you know what type of hypomethalating agents they use to treat +8 chromosomes?

[celebrations]

Hi,
I have got a trisomy 8 with MDS-RARS.
My hemo said because of it my risk would me intermediate – actually this could mean neither good nor bad…
There is no therapy against it.
Apart from being discovered it is not even mentioned any more….
Not necessarily there is a higher risk to develop AML.
Otherwise I read trisomy 8 could be associated with breast-cancer…means that women who have breast-cancer do have more often a trisomy 8 than healthy women.
I know two more trisomy 8s in this forum.
That is all I know about it.
All the best, celebrations

[chuckk333]

To g-masews:

Interesting, but where did this information come from? I am particularly interested since I have both monomy 7 and trisomy 8 as well as deltion 20.

However, after one year from first dx, I still have no symptoms and counts have remained steady or have improved slightly. The hemo doc at UCLA said “very interesting”

[g-masews]

chuckk333,
We are also in Colorado and I’m familiar with your posts. I’ve been on so many web sites and read so many articles, I couldn’t possibly remember where the particular info came from. I do know I looked up +8 in a Blood Journal article. My husband, also, has 3 cytogenic abnormalities (+8,-20q, +3), and his doctor was absolutely convinced he should have a SCT as soon as possible. His parting phrase to us was,”don’t wait too long, the trisomy 8 won’t stay idle for long”. That was two years ago and my husband hasn’t had a sick day yet. In fact, we’re off to Disneyworld tomorrow with three of our grandchildren. Just giving the little info on +8 that I’ve found so far.

[chuckk333]

Thanks, g-masews, for your quick reply.

Our second home here in CA is only a little ways from Disneyland. Hope you enjoy it. We are supposed to have good weather. Low overcast in the AM and sunny and nice in the PM. ie,. not too hot.

Chuck

[covergirl]

I am also trysomy 8. I am 2+ years from diagnosis, transfusion dependent, work full-time, and live as close to whatever a normal life is that I can.

Going to 3-day jazz concert this weekend. MDS be damned.

No one can predict anything with this crazy disease. I say live one day at a time.

–cheryl

[pigduck]

I am encouraged here. Maybe my dad just needs to get his lungs better… and hopefully then he can just live with supportive care.

Do any of you have blasts in your marrow/blood?

[pigduck]

My dad’s MDS is classified as Hypoplastic MDS… any of you know anything about that?

[cthomas555]

Marrow cellularity of 25% or less) at presentation.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=3409176&dopt=Abstract

This is a 1988 abstract. Maybe you can Google something more recent.

Hypoplastic MDS appears to be a distinct clinicopathologic entity characterized by marrow hypoplasia, macrocytosis, severe leucopenia and thrombocytopenia, low incidence of progression to acute leukemia, and unresponsiveness to conventional therapy.

Chris

[pigduck]

Yeah there seems to be nothing much on hypoplastic MDS or how to fix it.

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