BCR/ABL rearrangement and leukemia phenotype

Since the discovery that Philadelphia chromosome translocation is characterized, at the molecular level, by different types of BCR/ABL gene rearrangements, the issue of the relationship between the hybrid gene structure and the disease phenotype has puzzled clinical and molecular hematologists. Notwithstanding the body of data accumulated in the last few years, this issue is at present largely unsettled. However, recent observations contributed to fill some gaps in the picture unravelling new links between molecular structure and clinical features.