Comments to the Paper by Rani et al

K.C. Das, J. Nayak, Dipika Mohanty, Gurjeevan Garewal, Department of Haematology, Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh (India) To the Editor, We read with interest the paper by Rani et al., ‘Chronic myelogenous leukaemia in infancy and childhood: a 10-year study at New Delhi, India’ [Acta haemat. 66: 233-237, 1981] in which they reported 7 cases of chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML), 6 in children between 7 and 12 years of age and 1 in a 10-month-old infant. Chromosomal studies performed in 5 of them showed absence of Ph1 chromosome. We were intrigued by their claim that ‘This study is the only Indian one in which Philadelphia (Ph1) chromosome was studied.’ From the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India, which is situated only 240 km northwest of New Delhi, we published chromosomal findings in 185 cases of CML encountered in the 10-year period of 1965-1975 [4], In our series, Ph’ chromosome was present in 81.0% of cases (in 150 out of 185 cases), and among the 35 Ph’-nega-tive CML cases, 4 (2-5 years of age) were of the juvenile variety with haematological features similar to those described by Hardisty et al. [5]. In addition, there were 4 more cases in the age-group of 5-12 years, who were Ph1-positive adult type. During the same period of time we encountered 200 cases of leukaemias in infancy and childhood and CML accounted for approximately 4%. Thus, the frequency of infancy and childhood CML in our series in Chandigarh, India, is comparable to those reported in the Western literature [2, 3, 7]. We are also aware of several other published chromosomal studies of CML in India [1, 6], one of which [6] includes a few cases of childhood CML. References Bhisey, A.N.; Khare, A.G.; Advani, S.M.; Rana-dive, K.J.: Cytogenetic studies in leukemia. Bias-tic crisis of chronic myeloid leukemia. Indian J. med. Res. 68: 285-294(1978). Burgert, E.O., Jr.; Nieri, R.L.; Mills, S.D.; Lin-man, J.W.: Nonlymphocytic leukaemia in childhood. Mayo Clin. Proc. 48: 255-259 (1973). Cooke, J.V.: Chronic myelogenous leukemia in children. J. Pediat. 42: 537-550 (1953). Das, K.C.; Nayak, J.; Mohanty, D.; Garewal, G.: Cytology and cytogenetics in chronic myelogenous leukaemias. Indian J. med. Res. 68: 148-163(1978). Hardisty, Q.M.; Speed, D.E.; Till, M.: Granulo-cytic leukaemia of childhood. Br. J. Haemat. 10: 551-566(1964). Khare, A.G.; Bhisey, A.N.; Advani, S.M.; Rana-dive, K.J.: Cytogenetic studies in chronic myeloid leukemia. Indian J. med. Res. 67: 413-424 (1978).