Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, 15 (22), 9961-9966
IntroductionThe Philadelphia chromosome (Ph), t (9; 22) (q34; q11.2) is transcribed into a fusion gene, BCR-ABL (Awan et al., 2012;Sabir et al., 2012). This translocation is one of the most common genetic abnormalities detected in leukemia. The site of the breakpoint in the BCR gene may influence the phenotype of diseases. In the vast majority of patients, the breakpoints in the BCR gene are clustered within three well-defined regions: (I) a 55 kb sequence of the first intron, called the minor breakpoint cluster region (m-bcr); (II) a 5.8 kb region spanning exons 12-16, called the major breakpoint cluster region (M-bcr), and finally; (III) intron 19, called μ-bcr. The resultant fusion transcript (e1-a2) (m-bcr) encodes a 190 kDa chimeric protein (p190), and in cases of M-bcr, codes a 210 kDa chimeric protein (p210) and in cases of μ-bcr, a 230 kDa protein (p230) (Fausel, 2007). Large studies indicated that BCR-ABL fusion gene is a highly useful diagnostic tool that controls the effectiveness of the chronic myelogenous