LYMPHOID BLAST CRISIS AT THE ONSET OF CHRONIC MYELOGENOUS LEUKEMIA - MOLECULAR EVIDENCE

A patient with a typical haematological pattern of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia with BCR and IgH rearrangements was brought into complete remission by treatment. A few weeks later she developed the typical peripheral and bone marrow pattern of chronic myelo-genous leukaemia (CML) with persistence of the BCR rearrangement and disappearance of the IgH rearrangement, suggesting that this case is an example of CML presenting in blast crisis without a detectable chronic phase.