Association of the translocation (15;17) with malignant proliferation of
promyelocytes in acute leukemia and chronic myelogenous leukemia at blastic
crisis
S Misawa, E Lee, CA Schiffer, Z Liu and JR Testa
Cytogenetic studies were performed on nine patients with acute
promyelocytic leukemia. Every patient had an identical translocation
(15;17) or, in one case, a variant three-way rearrangement between
chromosomes 7, 15, and 17. Another patient with chronic myelogenous
leukemia was examined at the time of blastic crisis when the patient's bone
marrow was infiltrated by hypergranular promyelocytes and blasts. Bone
marrow cells contained a t(15;17) as well as a Ph1 chromosome. Only the
latter abnormality was observed in the chronic phase of the disease. The
translocation (15;17) was detected in all ten patients when bone marrow or
peripheral blood cells were cultured for 24 hours prior to making
chromosome preparations. However, the t(15;17) was not seen in three of
these same cases when bone marrow cells were processed directly. These
findings indicate that the t(15;17) is closely associated with acute
proliferation of leukemic promyelocytes and that detection of this
karyotypic defect may be influenced by the particular cytogenetic
processing method used in different laboratories. An analysis of the
banding pattern in the variant translocation provided additional evidence
favoring chromosomal breakpoints at or very near the junction between bands
17q12 and 17q21 and at 15q22.
Volume 67,
Issue 2,
pp. 270-274,
02/01/1986
Copyright © 1986 by The American Society of Hematology
