Braune Jan, Rieger Kathrin, Blau Olga, Keller Ulrich, Bullinger Lars, Krönke Jan
Department of Hematology, Oncology and Cancer Immunology, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany.
German Cancer Consortium (DKTK) Partner Site Berlin and German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Heidelberg, Germany.
Case Rep Hematol. 2022 Dec 28;2022:3317936. doi: 10.1155/2022/3317936. eCollection 2022.
The majority of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with the mutation achieve remission with intensive chemotherapy. However, many patients subsequently relapse, which occurs frequently within the first 2-3 years after therapy, while late relapse after more than 10 years is rare and can also represent secondary/therapy-associated AML without the NPM1 mutation. Here, we present a case of -mutated AML that developed medullary and extramedullary relapse 17 years after allogeneic stem cell transplantation, maintaining the mutation and all other genetic alterations detected at first diagnosis. This exceptionally long latency between diagnosis and relapse of a genetically highly related leukemic clone implies the existence of therapy-resistant, persisting dormant leukemic stem cells in mutant AML.