Definition
Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a distinct subtype of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) characterized by the expansion of leukemic cells blocked at the promyelocytic stage of myelopoiesis. According to the French–American–British (FAB) classification of acute leukemia, APL corresponds to the M3 and M3-variant subtypes, and according to World Health Organization classification (2001) it corresponds to the subtype: AML associated with translocations involving chromosomes 15 and 17 [t(15;17)] and variants. APL accounts for 5–10 % of adult AML patients in Caucasian populations and for 20–30 % among patients with Latino ancestry. Invariably, APL leukemic cells harbor chromosomal translocations involving the retinoic acid receptor α (RARα) gene on chromosome 17 (Table 1), which may be fused to one of five possible partner genes: promyelocytic leukemia (PML), promyelocytic leukemia zinc finger (PLZF), nucleophosmin (NPM), nuclear mitotic apparatus (NuMA), and signal transducer and...
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He, LZ., Figueiredo-Pontes, L.L., Rego, E.M., Pandolfi, P.P. (2015). Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. In: Schwab, M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Cancer. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_63-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27841-9_63-2
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Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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