The incidence of acute promyelocytic leukemia in patients from Latin America is higher than in other ethnic groups – 24.3%, but the clinical features of the disease or any fundamental biological differences are not found in them. S. Santillana et al. a higher detection rate (74.4%) in these patients is one (bcr1) of three transcripts resulting from t (15; 17) than among patients in Italy (59.4%), Spain (56%), UK (61%), China (69%), USA (54%).

The development of acute promyelocytic leukemia as a secondary leukemia associated with prior chemotherapy and radiation has been described. By 1999, about 60 such cases are known, and in most patients this is the second tumor after treatment for cancer of the breast, uterus, and hepatocellular carcinoma.

In 6 out of 60 patients, acute promyelocytic leukemia occurred during the therapy of various types of lymphomas. Patients were treated with drugs such as etoposide, novantron, adriamycin, cyclophosphamide. In 2000, French researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of the diagnosis of acute promyelocytic leukemia at the University Hospital Lille. From 1984 to 2000, 75 patients were diagnosed with ALI, and in nine (12%) of them, the development of ALI was preceded by chemoradiotherapy for breast cancer (n = 4), lung cancer (n = 1), lymphomas (muco-associated – 1, large cell – 3).

The average time from the completion of therapy for the primary tumor to the time of diagnosis of secondary AFL was 24 months (15 months – 8 years). The authors noted an interesting pattern of increasing the frequency of occurrence of secondary APL and shortening the interval before its diagnosis as the aggressiveness of modern therapy increases, especially lymphomas. All secondary OPL were classified as a classic hypergranular variant, in all cases t (15; 17) was detected, the results of treatment for them do not differ from those of primary PLA.

Promyelocytic blast crises of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) are described. Promyelocytic blast crisis was diagnosed in patients with previously proven chronic myeloid leukemia. In one case, the diagnosis of a promyelocytic crisis was confirmed morphologically, immunophenotypically, and cytogenetically [FISH study for the presence of t (15; 17)]. In another case, a blistering crisis revealed a typical marker of APL – PML-RARa transcript, the crisis developed 4 years after the diagnosis of CML, which was characterized by typical t (9; 22) and coexpression of p190 (e3a2) and p210 (b3a2).