We report on a patient with a clinically diagnosed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) with so far unrecorded complex translocations. As GTG-banding was not able to resolve all karyotypic changes, spectral karyotyping (SKY) and multiplex-fluorescence in situ hybridization (M-FISH) were performed for comparison. Both methods gave nearly identical results, however, they were unable to characterize all involved chromosomal breakpoints in detail. Thus, multicolor banding (MCB) technique was applied and its results were confirmed for two large derivative chromosomes by microdissection and reverse painting. Using this battery of molecular cytogenetic approaches the karyotype of this AML case could be described as 40≈44,XY,der(1)t(1;5;8;20) (1qter↷1p12::5q14.3↷5q15 or 5q15↷5q14.3::8p11.2↷8p23.? 3::20p11.1↷20p13),del(2)(q12),der(3)t(3;6),der(5)t(5;18) (5p15.33↷5q11::18q21.3↷18q23),del(6),-8,der(9)t(9;17;15),der(10)t(3;10),del(11)(q24),-15,-16,del(17),der(18) t(8;18;5;2;20)(8q24.3↷8q24.2 or 8q24.2↷8q24.3::18p11.22↷18q21.3::5q14.3↷5q11::2q32↷2q12::20q13.2↷20q13.33), der(20)t(1;20;18)(1p36.33↷1p31.3-22.3::20p11.1↷20q11.2 or 20q11.2↷20p11.1::18p11.22↷18p11.32).

Related Articles