ETV6/RUNX1 displayed discordance between fusion transcript assay and FISH results as well as rare non-specific binding in AL samples with normal or complex cytogenetics.
Familial platelet disorder (FPD)/AML is an autosomal dominant disorder caused by germline mutation of RUNX1, marked by thrombocytopenia and propensity to acute leukemia.
In t-AML a 40 kb deleted MCR pointed to RUNX1 on 21q22, a gene coding for a transcription factor implicated in frequent rearrangements in leukemia and in familial thrombocytopenia.
The mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) H3K4 methyltransferase protein, and the heterodimeric RUNX1/CBFβ transcription factor complex, are critical for definitive and adult hematopoiesis, and both are frequently targeted in human acute leukemia.
Haploinsufficiency of RUNX1 (also known as CBFA2/AML1) is associated with familial thrombocytopenia, platelet dysfunction, and predisposition to acute leukemia.
Thus, acute leukemia with t(1;21) and RUNX1 rearrangement could be associated with B/myeloid mixed phenotype as well as previous topoisomerase II inhibitor therapy and poor prognoses.
Translocations or down-regulation of RUNX1 have been linked to favorable clinical outcomes in acute leukemias, suggesting that RUNX1 may also play critical roles in chemotherapy responses in acute leukemias; however, the molecular mechanisms remain unclear.
Collaboration between AML1-D171N and Evi1 was confirmed by a BMT model where coexpression of AML1-D171N and Evi1 induced acute leukemia of the same phenotype with much shorter latencies.
We describe here a previously unreported rearrangement, t(11;21)(q13;q22), that disrupts the RUNX1 gene in a patient with acute leukemia and the molecular analysis of the fusion gene.