BCR-ABL Quantitative RQ-PCR, IS (International Scale)

Overview

The t(9;22)/BCR-ABL1 abnormality is associated with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and Philadelphia-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia of B-cell lineage (Ph+ ALL). Very rarely, this abnormality has also been identified in cases of acute myeloid leukemia and T-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma. The fusion gene on the derivative chromosome 22q11 produces a chimeric BCR-ABL1 mRNA transcript and corresponding translated oncoprotein. Despite substantial breakpoint heterogeneity at the DNA level, a consistent set of BCR-ABL1 mRNA transcripts are produced that can be readily and sensitively detected by reverse transcription-PCR (RT-PCR) technique. In CML, breakpoints in BCR result in either exons 13 or 14 (e13, e14) joined to exon 2 of ABL1 (a2).