Second relapse of acute promyelocytic leukemia (ANLL-M3) with t(15;17) and t(1;3)(p36;q21)☆

We describe herein a patient with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)-(ANLL-M3) whose bone marrow cells in the second relapse showed t(1;3)(p36;q21) together with t(15;17) (q22;q11–q12). Although a total of 21 patients with t(1;3) have been reported so far, among which three cases with de novo acute nonlymphocytic leukemia were included, our patient is the first case with APL. The hematologic findings in our case confirmed the previous observations that this anomaly is associated with relatively high platelet count and the multi-myeloid lineage involvement of leukemic cells. Our patient responded well to chemotherapy and achieved first and second remission with 42 months of total survival, contrary to our expectation that patients with this anomaly have a poor prognosis.