RAPID DISAPPEARANCE OF AML1 ETO FUSION TRANSCRIPTS IN PATIENTS WITH T(8-21) ACUTE MYELOID-LEUKEMIA FOLLOWING BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION AND CHEMOTHERAPY/

To assess the clinical significance of monitoring minimal residual dis ease in t(8;21)(q22;q22) AML, RT-PCR assay was conducted during the cl inical course of 12 patients who had undergone BMT or conventional che motherapy. Two cases relapsed after BMT and chimeric RNA was detected soon after BMT in their bone marrow cells. The other three cases, in w hom chimeric RNA was not detected after BMT, are in CR at 21 to 33 mon ths following BMT. Similarly, four out of 7 cases who showed negative chimeric RNA after completion of chemotherapy have been in CR at 11 to 34 monthsfollowing completion of chemotherapy. The present findings a ppear different from other studies which reported the detection of AML 1-ET0 chimeric RNA in long-term CR patients.