Literature indicates that in 95 % of all subjects with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and in 25-30 % of subjects with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) a reciprocal translocation between the long arms of chromosome 9 and chromosome 22 [t(9;22)] can be found. This translocation or the resulting fusion product can be detected by a number of techniques, including fluorescent in situ hybridization...

Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is caused by the tyrosine kinase activity of the oncoprotein BCR-ABL. The introduction of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) targeting BCR-ABL has profoundly changed the prognosis of CML. Currently, there are three TKIs approved for treatment of CML, imatinib, nilotinib and dasatinib. The five-year-survival is about 90 % in CML patients treated with TKI in first ch...

reaction (PCR) methods as previously described in detail.1,2 Forty-six (1.8%) cases showed an ambiguous result and were not considered for further analysis. Of the remaining 2498 cases, 904 (36.2%) were BCR-ABL (599 24% minor breakpoint region [m-bcr] and 282 11.3% major breakpoint region [M-bcr], 15 0.6% both, M-bcr and m-bcr, and 8 atypical transcripts), and 1594 were BCR-ABL . Atypical trans...

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a clonal myeloproliferative disorder of pluripotent hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells that has been paradigmatic to our understanding of the molecular and cellular basis of human malignancies. It has provided an excellent example of how a specific molecular abnormality can be targeted therapeutically to transform a lifethreatening malignancy into a chronic di...

The myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are clonal disorders of hematopoiesis that arise as a result of aberrant activation of tyrosine kinases and result in the proliferation and accumulation of mature myeloid cells in the blood, bone marrow and spleen. The prototypical MPN, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is caused by constitutive activation of ABL kinase occurring as a result of the BCR-ABL f...

to the editor: Although secondary cancer is a wellestablished long-term complication of hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation,1 the transmission of hematologic cancers through marrow or solidorgan transplantation is exceptional.2 Moreover, to our knowledge, it has not been reported after peripheral-blood stem-cell transplantation. A nine-year-old African child received a diagnosis of sickle c...

In July, 2000, a 50-year-old man presented with leukocytosis and splenomegaly (21 cm). Leucocyte concentration was 93×10/L, haemoglobin 150 g/L, and platelets 345×10/L (fi gure 1). A diff erential blood count showed 54% neutrophils, 2% lymphocytes, 13% myelocytes, 7% metamyelocytes, 2% promyelocytes, 1% blasts, and 7% basophils. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) concentration was increased at 484 U/L...

BCR-ABL is a chimeric oncogene generated by translocation of sequences from the c-abl protein-tyrosine kinase gene on chromosome 9 into the BCR gene on chromosome 22. Alternative chimeric proteins, p21OBCR-ABL and pl9OBCR-ABL, are produced that are characteristic of chronic myelogenous leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia, respectively. Their role in the etiology of human leukemia remains ...

A 51-year-old Taiwanese man was a known hepatitis B virus carrier with cirrhosis and bilobar hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). He underwent four episodes of transarterial embolization for the HCC. On follow-up, he had HCC recurrences and was advised liver transplantation. He underwent routine pretransplant workup and subsequently underwent right lobe living donor liver transplantation. The periop...

Selective targeting of neoplastic cells has long been an intriguing concept for treatment of malignant diseases, although its realization has proven elusive. Current therapy of malignant diseases thus still relies largely on cytotoxic drugs that may be potent but are quite nonspeci®c in their mechanisms of action. As a result, toxicity is frequent and clinical ecacy more often than not is limi...