Therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia with CBFB/MYH11 in a patient with ovarian cancer after exposure to chemotherapy

• Published in: Indian journal of pathology & microbiology Vol. 66; no. 4; pp. 865 - 867
• Main Authors: Yang, Xinhong, Liu, Qiuxia, Zhang, Rongjuan, Yang, Xiaofeng, Wang, Lihong, Zhang, Zhihua, Li, Yan, Lin, Li
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: India Medknow Publications and Media Pvt. Ltd 01-10-2023; Medknow Publications & Media Pvt. Ltd; Wolters Kluwer Medknow Publications
• Subjects: Acute myeloid leukemia; Alkylating agents; Alkylation; Cancer; Cancer patients; Carboplatin; Care and treatment; cbfb/myh11; Chemotherapy; Chromosome translocations; Cytotoxicity; DNA topoisomerase (ATP-hydrolysing); Exposure; Health services; Hematological diseases; Latent period; Leukemia; Lymphoid tissue; Ovarian cancer; Paclitaxel; Radiation; Runx1 protein; therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia; Tumors; ovarian cancer; therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia
• ISSN: 0377-4929; 0974-5130
• DOI: 10.4103/ijpm.ijpm_415_22

In patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), about 25%-35% of patients have a history of other hematological diseases, 10% of patients have a history of malignant tumors in other systems and have received cytotoxic treatment including chemotherapy and/or radiation, and the disease is categorized as therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) according to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of tumors of hematopoietic and lymphoid tissues. Two subsets of t-AML are generally recognized based on the nature of prior treatments and the characteristics of the disease. The most common type occurs after exposure to alkylating agents and/or radiation, with a latent period of 5 to 10 years. The less common type occurs after treatment with agents targeting topoisomerase II and has a shorter latent period of 1 to 5 years. The majority of these cases are associated with balanced recurrent chromosomal translocations frequently involving MLL at 11q23, RUNX1 at 21q22, or CBFB at 16q22 and morphologically resemble the features of de novo AML associated with these translocations. Here, we describe a rare case of a 48-year-old female with ovarian cancer who developed AML with CBFB/MYH11 fusion, less than two years after exposure to paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy.