Activation of the EVI-1 oncogene has been reported in acute myeloid leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in blast crisis, and less commonly, in chronic-phase CML patients.
These observations suggested that a myeloid/NK cell precursor might have been involved in the Ph-positive clone and have been a target for blastic transformation of CML, although EVI1 expression is not specific for transformation to BC from myeloid/NK lineage.
Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction detected the TEL/EVI1 transcript without the intervening 5' non-coding exon of EVI1, suggesting that inappropriate expression of the EVI1 protein driven by the TEL promotor could play a critical role in progression to the blast crisis of CML.
Activation of the Evi-1 gene was first described to be associated with the transformation of murine myeloid leukaemias and has previously been detected in cases of human acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) in blast crises and in myelodysplastic syndromes.
Establishment of a myeloid leukaemia cell line (Kasumi-4) with t(9;22;11)(q34;q11;q13), inv(3)(q21q26) and the EVI1 gene activation from a patient with chronic myelogenous leukaemia in blast crisis.