Monitoring of treatment outcome in acute promyelocytic leukemia by RT-PCR
Diverio, D.; Pandolfi, P.P.; Rossi, V.; Biondi, A.; Pelicci, P.G.; Lo Coco, F.
Leukemia 8(Suppl 2): S63-S65
1994
ISSN/ISBN: 0887-6924 PMID: 7815841 Document Number: 427364
A rearrangement between the PML and RAR-alpha genes underlies the acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)-specific t(15;17) translocation, leading to the production of a chimeric mRNA. Recent development of a reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay for the PML/RAR-alpha hybrid has proven useful for rapid diagnosis and monitoring of minimal residual disease (MRD) in APL patients. Preliminary studies in which the prognostic significance of RT-PCR was evaluated indicate that this test may identify patients at high risk of relapse.