Emergence of chronic myelogenous leukemia from a background of myeloproliferative disorder: JAK2V617F as a potential risk factor for BCR-ABL translocation

We report the emergence of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) in a patient with JAK2V617F-positive polycythemia vera after 15 years of phlebotomy. The polycythemia vera clinical and molecular findings were suppressed at the time of CML diagnosis, only to re-emerge after the leukemia was successfully treated with imatinib. We explored the potential association between myeloproliferative disorders and CML in the context of the current literature and found a higher-than-expected coincidence based on known epidemiologic data for each specific condition. We hypothesize that myeloproliferative disorder (JAK2V617F or molecular events that cause JAK2V617F) is a risk factor for CML (BCR-ABL translocation). Because of therapeutic implications, clinicians should be aware that the conditions co-occur more frequently than once thought.