Variant Philadelphia translocations in chronic myeloid leukemia: A report of five cases.

The t (9;22)(q34;q11) translocation is found in about 90% of the chronic myeloid leukemia patients. About 5-10% of these patients have complex variant translocations involving a third chromosome in addition to chromosomes 9 and 22. We describe five male patients in the chronic myeloid leukemia-chronic phase, with rare variant Philadelphia translocations. All of them had the BCR-ABL fusion gene and responded well to treatment with imatinib mesylate. All the patients are on regular follow-up.