Mapping genes in a chromosome region frequently deleted in mutagen-associated leukemia

Cancer cytogeneticists discovered in 1975 that a group of patients with preleukemia had a deletion of chromosome No.5 in cells obtained from the bone marrow. Some of these patients had a long but relatively stable disease characterized by refractory anemia, whereas others with apparently the same deletion had a disease that rapidly progressed to acute myeloid leukemia. One of the major unresolved questions is whether or not the genes that are affected in these two groups are the same. An attempt is made to investigate the 5q-syndrome on an analysis of bone marrow cells from patients with acute leukemia who have had cancer or lymphoma previously treated with radiation and/or chemotherapy