ETOPOSIDE-RELATED ACUTE PROMYELOCYTIC LEUKEMIA

The development of therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) has become a growing concern over the past decade, because of the increase in the percentage of long-term survivors of primary malignancy. We re viewed 17 cases with etoposide-related acute promyelocytic leukemia (A PL) reported in the literature. The close association between treatmen t with etoposide for Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) and the devel opment of etoposide-related APL was demonstrated among Japanese and It alians. Our data on the breakpoints (b/ps) of the PML and RAR alpha ge nes are presented. It is suggested that chromatin structure might be m ore important than specific consensus sequence in the distribution of b/ps in etoposide-related APL.