Clustered Incidence of Adult Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia

Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is characterized by the presence of a translocation between chromosomes 15 and 17 resulting in the PML-RARA fusion. In 2011, we noted an increase in APL cases at our institution. We surveyed six major hospitals in the greater Boston area and Massachusetts Cancer Registry to identify incident APL cases, and describe the demographic and clinical characteristics of these patients between 2004 and 2014. We identified multiple peaks in incident cases and explore geographic and temporal trends that merit further investigation to determine whether environmental exposures may contribute to leukemogenesis.
Source: Leukemia Research - Category: Hematology Authors: Tags: Letter to the Editor Source Type: research