Feasibility of iFISH patterns in hematologic malignancies among Congolese patients at Kinshasa University clinics

Abstract Objective To analyze the feasibility of detecting Ph 1 in leukemia patients in the Kinshasa University Clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo, at KU Leuven, Belgium. Methods Bone marrow and peripheral blood samples with chronic myeloid leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia or acute leukocytes leukemia were obtained from 32 patients in Kinshasa University clinics in the Democratic Republic of Congo and transferred to KU Leuven in Belgium for iFISH feasibility. Ph 1 was detected by using a remote analysis of interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization (iFISH). Results Out of the 32 patients involved in this study, 65.6% ( n  = 21) of the cases were successfully tested, of which 52.4% ( n  = 11) were iFISH positives for the variant t(9;22) (presence of Ph 1 ) in chronic myeloid leukemia samples and 47.6% ( n  = 10) negatives in all subtypes of hematological malignancies. However, there was a female predominance in chronic myeloid leukemia samples Ph 1 -positives by iFISH, whereas no sexual influence was observed on acute subtypes of leukemia. Conclusions iFISH analysis is feasible on samples obtained from remote sites in the Democratic Republic of Congo. However, the optimization of the sample storage is necessary to further improve iFISH's performance.