International Journal of Hematology

, Volume 91, Issue 4, pp 708–710 | Cite as

Relapsed APL patient with variant NPM–RARα fusion responded to arsenic trioxide-based therapy and achieved long-term survival

  • Yan Chen
  • Ling Gu
  • Chenyan Zhou
  • Xueqiang Wu
  • Ju Gao
  • Qiang Li
  • Yiping Zhu
  • Cangsong Jia
  • Zhigui Ma
Case Report
First Online:
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:

Abstract

The t(5;17)/NPM–RARα is the second variant chromosomal translocation in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) to be characterized and also the second most plentiful variant translocation. So far, there is a lack of information on the effectiveness of arsenic trioxide (ATO) in relapsed APL with variant RARα chimera including t(5;17)/NPM–RARα. We report here a long-term survived APL patient with variant NPM–RARα fusion who relapsed four times and each time responded well to ATO or ATO-based re-induction therapy. The patient had received a total of more than 3,500 mg of ATO, but showed no obvious arsenic-related toxicities. This case illustrates the long-term efficiency and safety of ATO-based therapy not only in newly diagnosed APL, but also in relapsed APL including those with variant translocations.

Keywords

Acute promyelocytic leukemia Relapse PML–RARα NPM–RARα Arsenic trioxide 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Drs Chin-Hon Pui and GCF Chan for careful reading of the manuscript. This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30670895).

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Copyright information

© The Japanese Society of Hematology 2010

Authors and Affiliations

  • Yan Chen
    • 1
  • Ling Gu
    • 1
  • Chenyan Zhou
    • 1
  • Xueqiang Wu
    • 2
  • Ju Gao
    • 1
  • Qiang Li
    • 1
  • Yiping Zhu
    • 1
  • Cangsong Jia
    • 1
  • Zhigui Ma
    • 1
  1. 1.Department of PediatricsWest China Second University Hospital, Sichuan UniversityChengduChina
  2. 2.Department of HematologyBeijing Aerospace General HospitalBeijingChina

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