title: Ph positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia in adults: molecular and clinical studies.
abstract: Fifty-six patients with ALL were investigated for bcr involvement by PCR. Breakpoints were found in 15 patients (26.8%). There were no differences in clinical and hematologic features or the percentages of complete response (CR) between the Ph+ and Ph- cases. The duration of CR was 6 and 8 months, respectively. In 7/9 Ph1 relapsed ALL we observed increased expression of myeloid markers and 2/9 showed a switch of cytotype (Ly-->My). In none of the 13 Ph- relapsed ALL patients did we observe these findings. 7/15 of Ph+ cases expressed P190 and mRNA ela2 and 8/15 patients showed P210, with mRNA b3a2 in 5 and b2a2 in 3, respectively. The percentage of CR was 57% in the P190+ and 87% in the P210+ group. Investigation of more Ph1+ ALL cases treated with a uniform protocol should be performed in the future in order to determine whether any such biological and clinical differences exist.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000737:chemistry; D005260:Female; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl