Southern blot analysis of Bcr, N-ras, H-ras, c-myc and myb proto-oncogenes in blast crisis of chronic myelogenous leukemia.

Proto-oncogenes were studied by Southern blotting in 12 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia in blast crisis (CML). Cytogenetically, all cases had Philadelphia (Ph1) chromosome and 4 had additional chromosomal abnormalities including +8, +19, i(17q), double Ph1. The bcr gene was rearranged in all cases and the region of breakage points were located in the 5.8 kb Bgl II-Bam HI fragment of bcr. In a case with double Ph1 the breakage points of bcr were thought to be different from each other. We analyzed other proto-oncogenes (N-ras, H-ras, c-myc and myb) by Southern blotting, but did not find any abnormalities.