Acute promyelocytic leukemia of variant RARα translocation - a case report

02/2019

MUDr. Radka Šimečková

Morfologicko-cytochemické laboratoř, Ústav hematologie a krevní transfuze, Praha

SUMMARY

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a rare disease. APL is frequently associated with disseminated intravascular coagulation and increased fibrinolysis. The origin and development of the disease is 99 % associated with the reciprocal translocation of the alpha-retinoic acid (RARα) gene from chromosome 17 on chromosome 15 to the region of the gene called the promyelocytic leukemia gene (PML). The result of this translocation is the PML/RARα fusion gene. In less than 1%, the RARα gene fuses with other variant genes than PML. This article presents the case of APL with variant RARα translocation, focused on morphological findings.

Key words

acute promyelocytic leukemia, PML/RARα, variant RARα translocations in acute leukemia