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  • Letter to the Editor
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The CALM–AF10 fusion is a rare event in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia

Leukemia volume 21, pages 2568–2569 (2007)Cite this article

In a recent letter to the editor of Leukemia, Abdelhaleem et al. suggested that the fusion of CALM (clathrin-assembly protein-like lymphoid–myeloid, also known as PICALM) and AF10 (also known as MLLT10) genes is common in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) in children without Down's syndrome (DS), which was based on the observation of two cases of non-DS AMKL with a chromosomal translocation t(10;11)(p13;q14–21) that resulted in a CALM–AF10 fusion.1 Interestingly, the 11q14–21 region had previously been identified as a cluster of uncommon breakpoints in AMKL (1), but the CALM–AF10 translocation could not be detected by conventional cytogenetics in two larger series that included up to 72 patients with AMKL.2, 3 However, the fact that we had identified a subgroup of non-DS AMKL cases with marked increase of HOXA cluster gene expression, which was reminiscent of the HOXA cluster gene expression profiles reported in CALM–AF10 positive T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias (T-ALLs),4, 5 prompted us to search for cryptic CALM–AF10 translocations in non-DS AMKL.

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References

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatric Oncology, University Children's Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland

    O Greiner, B C Bornhauser & J P Bourquin

  2. Department of Hematology, CHU Toulouse and INSERM U563, Toulouse, France

    E Delabesse

  3. Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Hôpital Trousseau, Paris, France

    P Ballerini & J Landman-Parker

Authors
  1. O Greiner
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  2. B C Bornhauser
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  3. E Delabesse
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  4. P Ballerini
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  5. J Landman-Parker
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  6. J P Bourquin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to J P Bourquin.

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Greiner, O., Bornhauser, B., Delabesse, E. et al. The CALM–AF10 fusion is a rare event in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia. Leukemia 21, 2568–2569 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404835

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