Two cases of acute promyelocytic leukemia with variant translocations: the importance of chromosome No. 17 abnormality

Abstract

Two patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) were found to have chromosomal translocations in their leukemic cells; one had a 46,XX,t(7;17)(q36;q22) and another a 46,XY,t(1;17)(p36;q21) karyotype. These two cases of APL seem to be the first involving variant translocations instead of the standard t(15q+; 17q-) translocation. The present cases strongly suggest that the rearrangement of chromosome #17, which occurs in bands of the q21-22 region of the long arm, is crucially important in the pathogenesis of APL.