We report on a case of a 30-year-old male with acute B-lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) with immunophenotype CD19(+), CD22(+), CD20(+), CD10(+), with aberrant expression of CD13 and CD117, and IgH gene rearrangements.
CD13 is commonly expressed in hematopoietic malignancies of myelomonocytic origin and has less commonly been described in lymphoid neoplasms, including acute lymphoblastic leukemia, B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders, and plasma cell malignancies.
CD13/APN expression in some ALL at diagnosis could result from a block in the signal transduction pathways that cause its suppression by bone marrow stromal cells.
Monocytes appearing repeatedly after chemotherapies had an identical rearrangement pattern of immunoglobulin with leukemic blasts in a patient with CD13+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia.