Acute Myeloid Leukemia with BCR/ABL Fusion Chimera

Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome is most commonly associated with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a subset of precursor B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and acute biphenotypic leukemia. In contrast only 1 % of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) show a consistent association with the Ph Chromosome. Before making a diagnosis of Ph + AML stringent criteria need to be applied in order to differentiate it from blast crisis stage of CML. It is important to identify this rare entity as patients who otherwise carry a poor prognosis with standard chemotherapy regimen, would benefit from therapy with imatinib mesylate. This article discusses the morphological, immunophenotype and clinical characteristics of a rare case of Ph + AML.