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Frequency of ETV6/AML1 fusion in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Leukemia volume 17, pages 476–477 (2003)Cite this article

TO THE EDITOR

In a paper published in Leukemia in 2002, Jabbar Al-Obaidi and colleagues on behalf of the MRC Adult Leukaemia Working Party describe interesting findings on the frequency of ETV6/AML1 fusion as detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in 159 adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).1 In this large series, seven patients aged 15–50 years were shown to carry an ETV6/AML1 signal co-localization using commercial probes, giving a 4.4% incidence for this lesion, the highest so far reported in adult ALL patients.2,3 Interestingly, one of the two patients tested by RT-PCR did not show the expected ETV6/AML1 fusion product, raising the possibility that FISH may reveal cases with alternative breakpoints which are missed by PCR.1

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Acknowledgements

Work supported by MIUR-CNR ‘Oncology Project’; by AIRC coordinated grant and by FIRB-MIUR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche e Terapie Avanzate, Sezione di Ematologia, Università di Ferrara, Italy

    A Cuneo, P Agostini & G Castoldi

  2. Dipartimento di Biotecnologie Cellulari ed Ematologia, Università ‘La Sapienza’, Rome, Italy

    A Vitale & R Foà

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Cuneo, A., Agostini, P., Vitale, A. et al. Frequency of ETV6/AML1 fusion in adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia 17, 476–477 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402801

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