Chronic myeloid leukemia with an e13a3 BCR-ABL fusion: benign course responsive to imatinib with an RT-PCR advisory.

A case of a patient with chronic myeloid leukemia whose cells expressed an e13a3 (b2a3) variant BCR-ABL p210 mRNA is presented. The variant splice was detected by a qualitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction using primers complementary to BCR exon 13 (b2) and ABL exon 3 (a3). The patient responded well to imatinib and achieved a complete cytogenetic response.