Talk:Acute promyelocytic leukemia

I
I made some major edits. Any comments?

Well, I know that autologous bone marrow transplants work as treatment in a relapse of this disorder, since that's what they did with my mom when she was ill with APL. Dunno if they still use autogenic as well.

--another viewpoint--- Autologous bone marrow "transplant" or autologous stem cell infusions do not cure anything, except manage the side-effects of the "real" treatments. The treatment is whatever method is used to kill the malignant process in the bone marrow or elsewhere. The autologous stem cells are simply a way of decreasing the time for restoration of normal bone marrow production of white cells, red cells and platelets. They are basically a fancy blood transfusion. If there is no benefit from the chemotherapy or radiation (as is so far the case in high-risk breast cancer) then the autologous stems cells merely restore a person to the state they were in before the "real" treatment killed their marrow.

APML is often very effectively retreated in relapse, unlike many other myelocytic leukemias. ---

I know this information using Arsenic Trioxide is out of date. I know this because I was the 23rd patient to receive the treatment in 1998 at Northwest University in Chicago, IL. I was the 2nd patient of the state. To date, November 11, 2014, I am still cured. I am not in remission, I am cured. The translocation was corrected thus giving me no more chance to get APL again than you have right now. Since the mutation does not exist any longer, my oncologist does not believe I will pass the mutation to my offspring. I had no side effects from the arsenic. -Shannon Kniery-Scott

Anniversary review
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/abstract/111/5/2505 - historical review of APL. JFW | T@lk  09:50, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

From Leukemia
This (someone's school essay?) was pasted into Leukemia today: APL: Abbreviation for acute promyelocytic leukemia, a malignancy of the bone marrow in which there is a deficiency of mature blood cells in the myeloid line of cells and an excess of immature cells called promyelocytes. APL is due to a translocation (an exchange of chromosome material) between chromosomes 15 and 17 which is symbolized t(15;17). This translocation is not a mere marker of APL. It is the cause of APL.

APL was first recognized as a distinct disease entity in 1957. It accounts for 5-10% of cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The peak incidence of APL is in young adults. APL is considered a type of AML and is classified as the M3 variant of AML in the internationally accepted French-American-British (FAB) Classification.

The signs and symptoms of APL are nonspecific and include fatigue (feeling tired), minor infections, or a tendency to bleed (hemorrhagic diathesis). There is usually pancytopenia with low levels of red blood cells (anemia), low levels of the granulocytes and monocytes (types of white blood cells that fight infections), and low levels of platelets (that are needed for blood to clot normally). Patients with APL may therefore receive transfusions.

APL is consistently associated with a disorder that resembles (but is not identical to) disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). There is in APL a pronounced tendency to hemorrhage (bleeding). The bleeding can manifest itself as petechiae (little bleeding spots in the skin or elsewhere), small ecchymosis (bruises), epistaxis (nose bleeds), bleeding in the mouth, hematuria (blood in the urine), bleeding from venipuncture and bone marrow sites and in girls and women who are menstruating may have menometrorrhagia (excessive irregular menstrual bleeding). The hemorrhagic diathesis (bleeding condition) may precede the diagnosis of leukemia by 2-8 weeks.

The t(15;17) translocation in APL is the result of two chromosome breaks: one in chromosome 15 and the other in chromosome 17. The break in chromosome 15 disrupts the promyelocytic leukemia (PML) gene which encodes a growth suppressing transcription factor. And the break in chromosome 17 interrupts the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARa) gene which regulates myeloid differentiation. The translocation creates a PML/RARa fusion gene. It produces a chimeric protein that arrests the maturation of myeloid cells at the promyelocytic stage. (It reduces terminal cell differentiation.) And this leads to the increased proliferation of promyelocytes.

The treatment of APL differs from that for all other forms of AML. Most APL patients are now treated with all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA). ATRA is a form of "differentiation therapy." It activates the retinoid receptor RAR and causes the promyeloctes to differentiate (to mature) and this deters them from proliferating.

ATRA can induce a complete remission in most patients with APL by causing the APL-blasts to mature. However, ATRA cannot eliminate the leukemic clone. ATRA is therefore used in combination with chemotherapy including an anthracycline drug. Survival is better with the combination of ATRA and chemotherapy than chemotherapy alone in newly diagnosed APL, because ATRA + chemotherapy makes for a slightly higher rate of complete remissions while allowing significantly fewer relapses. Maintenance treatment with ATRA, and possibly with low-dose chemotherapy, further reduces the incidence of relapse.

The prognosis for APL depends on a number of factors including the white blood cell (WBC) count at the time of diagnosis, etc. Overall, more than 90% of patients with newly diagnosed APL today can achieve complete remission, and about 75% can be cured by the combination of ATRA and chemotherapy. In patients who relapse after remission, treatment may include arsenic trioxide.

The advent of ATRA therapy revolutionized the treatment of APL and markedly improved the prognosis (the outlook). ATRA syndrome is a serious side effect of ATRA treatment and includes fever, respiratory distress, and hypotension (abnormally low blood pressure). The ATRA syndrome can be prevented by the addition of chemotherapy and/or dexamethasone if the WBC is increasing.

In sum, APL is a form of acute myeloid leukemia caused by a specific chromosome translocation t(15;17). APL is associated with a characteristic cellular picture classified as M3 in the FAB Classification and responds favorably to treatments including retinoids, chemotherapy and, most recently, arsenicals.

There are no refs, but some of it might be useful here. WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:29, 12 December 2008 (UTC)


 * It does explicitly mention differentiation therapy which is not refered to in the main article. - Rod57 (talk) 03:56, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

European recommendations
http://bloodjournal.hematologylibrary.org/cgi/content/full/113/9/1875

Not to be missed. JFW | T@lk  20:59, 26 February 2009 (UTC)


 * Management of acute promyelocytic leukemia: recommendations from an expert panel on behalf of the European LeukemiaNet. 2008 looks good. Does article need changes to conform ? - Rod57 (talk) 04:04, 29 December 2012 (UTC)

Oral Arsenic therapy
I heard on the news that the researchers has found an effective cure for APL using oral arsenic treatment. According to the news, the result is more successful than bone marrow transplant or chemotherapy. The oral treatment is also much cheaper than the similar arsenic injection therapy with fewer side effects. See http://asm2010.hksh.org/ for more details. Kowloonese (talk) 07:40, 28 March 2010 (UTC)

I have mid 2011 lectures saying suggested/best practice is changing to use arsenic. Can anyone confirm/deny? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.219.186.34 (talk) 10:28, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

Lancet 2015
http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2815%2961278-8/fulltext 386(9990):247–248, 18 July 2015 Correspondence: Lessons taught by acute promyelocytic leukemia cure Hugues de Théemail DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(15)61278-8 Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) used to be a dreaded disease, the most vicious of all acute leukaemias. Standard risk APL can now be cured in virtually all patients by a combination of a hormone, retinoic acid, and arsenic trioxide. The latter can even be substituted by tetra-arsenic tetra-sulphide, allowing oral therapy. This seems to be open access. --Nbauman (talk) 09:00, 18 July 2015 (UTC)

Changing infobox picture
Hi there. I've changed the image in the infobox from to  as I believe the latter picture is a better depiction of the disease. The promyelocytes seen in APML aren't normal so using a diagram of a normal promyelocyte is misleading. Let me know if you have any concerns about this change. Thanks, SpicyMilkBoy (talk) 20:18, 15 June 2019 (UTC)