Cytogenetic studies of acute promyelocytic leukemia

Translocation t(15;17) is reported in bone marrow cells from six of seven patients with active acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL). One patient who showed t(15;17) at final relapse did not show it in directly prepared or cultured cells taken from a previous relapse. Bone marrow samples from two patients showed only cells with a normal karyotype in the direct preparation, whereas more than 60% of cells cultured for 24 hr showed t(15;17). R-Banding, G-banding, and an attempt at high-resolution banding indicated the break points t(15;17)(q24;21) for one of our patients.