Prevalence of familial malignancy in a prospectively screened cohort of patients with leukemia.

Abstract

6590 Background: Newer studies are giving increased understanding of the genetic origins of cancer. We conducted a pilot study to determine the prevalence of familial malignancy among adult leukemia patients admitted to a leukemia service from April 2009 to Dec 2009. Methods: An IRB approved screening questionnaire was used to ascertain information from 104 leukemia patients. Pts who were adopted or uncertain of their family history were excluded. Fisher's exact test for analyzing categorical variables and a two-sample t-test for continuous variables were used. Results: Of the 92 pts analyzed, 41 (44.6%) reported a first degree relative and 61 (66.3%) reported a first or second degree relative with cancer. At least one first degree relative with cancer was reported from 66.7% of CLL pts, 54.9% of AML pts, 37.5% of ALL pts, and 27.3% of CML pts. The median age was 55 yrs for those pts with either a first or second degree relative with cancer and 62 for those without a family history (p = ns). The most common cancers reported were breast (20% of pts reported an effected relative), colon (13%), lung (12%), leukemia (9%), unknown cancer (8%), prostate (6%) and stomach (5%). In many cases, the percentage of family members with a specific cancer type was similar to that reported for the general US population (Jemal et al, Cancer J Clin 2009; 59:225- 249). However, significant differences were noted when comparing our pts' family history with that of the US population for the following cancer subtypes: leukemia (9% our pts vs. 3% US), stomach (5% vs. 1%), colon (13% vs. 7%) and NHL (0% vs. 4%). Numerical differences that were not significant were noted for breast (20% vs. 13%), prostate (6% vs. 3%), bladder (1% vs. 5%) and esophagus (3% vs. 1%). Nine pts had 12 family members with leukemia. The median and mean age of these pts was 50 and 47 resp compared with the remaining pts who had a median age of 59 and mean of 57 (p = 0.04). Of these pts, 5 had AML, 3 had CML and 1 had ALL. Eight pts had a Li-Fraumeni pattern of familial clustering of cancer. Conclusions: The pattern of familial cancers may be different for pts with leukemia compared to the general population. We continue to accrue pts to determine if these differences effect treatment outcome. No significant financial relationships to disclose.