Transferrin and structural anomalies of chromosome 3 in the blastic phase of chronic myelocytic leukemia

Structural rearrangements of chromosome no. 3 involving bands q21 and q26 are relatively frequent in myeloproliferative disorders. These are either translocations between a no. 3 and another chromosome or, more frequently, intrachromosomal anomalies such as translocations (3; 3), insertions (3; 3) or inversions of a no. 3. We report two cases of chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) in blastic phase with a t(3; 3) as anomaly additional to the Ph, and review the literature concerning structural anomalies of no. 3 in Ph + CML, with the exception of variant Ph translocations.