Therapy related acute myeloid leukemia with t(8;16) mimicking acute promyelocytic leukemia

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with t(8;16)(p11;q13) is a distinct clinical and morphological entity with poor prognosis, which is characterized by a high frequency of extramedullary involvement, most commonly leukemia cutis; association with therapy related AML; frequent coagulopathy and morphologic features overlapping acute promyelocytic leukemia(APL). Herein, we present a case of 47 year-old post-menopausal woman developing secondary AML with t(8;16)(p11;q13) after 1 year of completion of therapy for breast carcinoma. Blasts were granulated with few showing clefted nucleus resembling promyelocytes and immnuophenotyping showed high side scatter with MPO positivity and CD 34 and HLA-DR negativity. In view of promyelocyte like morphology and immunophenotyping of blasts, possibility of APL was considered but, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for PML-RARα fusion transcript came out to be negative. Conventional cytogenetics showed t(8;16)(p11;q13). So, we should keep possibility of t(8;16) (p11;q13) in therapy related acute myeloid leukemia in patient showing clinical and morphological features of acute promyelocytic leukemia.