M. Lafagepochitaloff et al., ACUTE PROMYELOCYTIC LEUKEMIA CASES WITH NONRECIPROCAL PML RARA OR RARA/PML FUSION GENES/, Blood, 85(5), 1995, pp. 1169-1174
Tumor-associated chromosome translocations usually lead to the formati
on of two reciprocal fusion genes: one thought to be involved in the t
ransformation process, the other the mechanical consequence of the tra
nslocation event. In the case of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) bl
asts, the 15;17 chromosome translocation generates the putatively tran
sforming PML/RARa fusion gene and its reciprocal RARa/PML. We report A
PL cases with submicroscopic 15;17 recombinations leading to the forma
tion of nonreciprocal PML/RARa or RARa/PML fusion genes. Therefore, ea
ch of the two reciprocal translocation products may be independently f
ormed and selected by the leukemic phenotype, implying that both are i
nvolved in tumorigenesis. (C) 1995 by The American Society of Hematolo
gy.