De novo acute megakaryoblastic leukemia with p210 BCR/ABL and t(1;16) translocation but not t(9;22) Ph chromosome

Abstract

Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) is a type of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), in which majority of the blasts are megakaryoblastic. De novo AMKL in adulthood is rare, and carries very poor prognosis. We here report a 45-year-old woman with de novo AMKL with BCR/ABL rearrangement and der(16)t(1;16)(q21;q23) translocation but negative for t(9;22) Ph chromosome. Upon induction chemotherapy consisting of homoharringtonine, cytarabine and daunorubicin, the patient achieved partial hematological remission. The patient was then switched to imatinib plus one cycle of CAG regimen (low-dose cytarabine and aclarubicin in combination with granulocyte colony-stimulating factor), and achieved complete remission (CR). The disease recurred after 40 days and the patient eventually died of infection. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of de novo AMKL with p210 BCR/ABL and der(16)t(1;16)(q21;q23) translocation but not t(9;22) Ph chromosome. © 2011 Min et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.