Primary blasts of a t(11;17)(q23;q21) acute promyelocytic leukaemia (APL) patient were analysed with respect to retinoic acid (RA) and arsenic trioxide (As 2 O 3 ) sensitivity as well as PLZF/RARa status. Although RA induced partial monocytic di erentiation ex vivo, but not in vivo, As203 failed to induce apoptosis in culture, contrasting with t(15;17) APL and arguing against the clinical use of As203 in t(11;17)(q23;q21) APL. Prior to cell culture, PLZF/RARa was found to exactly co-localize with PML onto PML nuclear bodies. However upon cell culture, it quickly shifted towards microspeckles, its localization found in transfection experiments. Arsenic trioxide, known to induce aggregation of PML nuclear bodies, left the microspeckled PLZF/RARa localization completely una ected. RA treatment led to PLZF/RARa degradation. However, this complete PLZF/RARa degradation was not accompanied by di erentiation or apoptosis, which could suggest a contribution of the reciprocal RARa/PLZF fusion product in leukaemogenesis or the existence of irreversible changes induced by the chimera.