HAEM5:Acute myeloid leukaemia with RUNX1::RUNX1T1 fusion

Haematolymphoid Tumours (WHO Classification, 5th ed.)

editContent Update To WHO 5th Edition Classification Is In Process; Content Below is Based on WHO 4th Edition Classification

This page was converted to the new template on 2023-12-07. The original page can be found at HAEM4:Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) with t(8;21)(q22;q22.1); RUNX1-RUNX1T1.

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Primary Author(s)*

Christine Bryke, MD
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

WHO Classification of Disease

Structure	Disease
Book	Haematolymphoid Tumours (5th ed.)
Category	Myeloid proliferations and neoplasms
Family	Acute myeloid leukaemia
Type	Acute myeloid leukaemia with defining genetic abnormalities
Subtype(s)	Acute myeloid leukaemia with RUNX1::RUNX1T1 fusion

Definition / Description of Disease

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with t(8;21)(q22;q22) resulting in RUNX1-RUNX1T1 gene fusion defines a subtype of AML with neutrophil lineage maturation. In the 2016 revision to the World Health Organization (WHO) classification of myeloid neoplasms and acute leukemia, it is in the group of AML with recurrent genetic abnormalities. In the older French-American-British (FAB) classification system, t(8;21)(q22;q22) positive AML belonged to the acute myeloblastic leukemia with maturation M2 category and accounted for 10% of cases. t(8;21)(q22;q22) can occasionally be seen in therapy-related AML. In those instances the leukemia is not classified in the group of AML with recurrent genetic abnormalities due to clinical and prognostic differences. AML with t(8;21)(q22;q22) is a core binding leukemia (see Genes and Main Pathways Involved section below).

• t(8;21)(q22;q22) is a translocation involving the long arms of chromosomes 8 and 21 that defines a distinctive cytogenetic subtype of acute myeloid leukemia.
• Complex translocations involving chromosomes 8, 21 and a third chromosome occur; the derivative chromosome 8 in the t(8;21)(q22;q22) and the variant t(8;21;var) carries the RUNX1-RUNX1T1 gene rearrangement.
• Cases with cryptic RUNX1-RUNX1T1 gene rearrangement have been reported.
• Note: The RUNX1T1 gene is currently located at 8q21.3. This gene was previously located at 8q22, which explains the discrepancy in the breakpoint given in the name for this WHO-defined disease entity.

Karyogram showing t(8;21)(q22;q22) translocation. Jennifer Otani, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

t(8;21)(q22;q22)

FISH RUNX1-RUNX1T1 probe set on metaphase cell with t(8;21)(q22;q22) translocation. Jennifer Otani, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA.

Synonyms / Terminology

AML1-ETO

Epidemiology / Prevalence

Approximately 1-5% of AML cases have the t(8;21)(q22;q22.1)

• Occurs mainly in younger patients
• Mean age is 30 years
• Most common type of AML in children

Clinical Features

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Signs and Symptoms	EXAMPLE: Asymptomatic (incidental finding on complete blood counts) EXAMPLE: B-symptoms (weight loss, fever, night sweats) EXAMPLE: Fatigue EXAMPLE: Lymphadenopathy (uncommon)
Laboratory Findings	EXAMPLE: Cytopenias EXAMPLE: Lymphocytosis (low level)

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• May present as a myeloid sarcoma and, if so, the bone marrow aspirate blast count may be misleadingly low
• Concurrent systemic mastocytosis has been reported.

Sites of Involvement

Bone marrow

Morphologic Features

• Large blasts with abundant basophilic cytoplasm often with azurophilic granules and perinuclear clearing
• Long sharp Auer rods are frequently observed.

Bone marrow aspirate with t(8;21)(q22;q22) blast with Auer rod (100X). Robert Willim, MD, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA

• Promyelocytes, myelocytes and metamyelocytes may have abnormal nuclear segmentation and cytoplasmic staining.
• Normal eosinophil precursors are frequently increased and do not show the nuclear and cytoplasmic abnormalities seen in AML with inv(16)(p13.1q22) or t(16;16)(p13.1;q22).
• Cases with t(8;21)(q22;q22.1) and less than 20% blast percentage in the marrow should be classified as AML rather than myelodysplastic syndrome according to the WHO 2017.

Immunophenotype

• Blasts express CD34, HLA-DR, MPO, CD13, CD33 (weak), CD15 and/or CD65, co-expression of CD34. Lymphoid markers: CD19, PAX5, sometimes cytoplasmic CD79a
• Occasional weak TdT positivity and/or CD56 expression may have adverse prognosis

Finding	Marker
Positive (universal)	CD34, HLA-DR, MPO, CD13, CD33 (weak), TdT (weak), CD56 (fraction of cases)
Positive (subset)	CD15 and/or CD65
Positive (Lymphoid markers)	CD19, PAX5, sometimes cytoplasmic CD79a
Negative (universal)
Negative (subset)

Chromosomal Rearrangements (Gene Fusions)

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Chromosomal Rearrangement	Genes in Fusion (5’ or 3’ Segments)	Pathogenic Derivative	Prevalence	Diagnostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Prognostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Therapeutic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Notes
EXAMPLE: t(9;22)(q34;q11.2)	EXAMPLE: 3'ABL1 / 5'BCR	EXAMPLE: der(22)	EXAMPLE: 20% (COSMIC) EXAMPLE: 30% (add reference)	Yes	No	Yes	EXAMPLE: The t(9;22) is diagnostic of CML in the appropriate morphology and clinical context (add reference). This fusion is responsive to targeted therapy such as Imatinib (Gleevec) (add reference).

editv4:Chromosomal Rearrangements (Gene Fusions)

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Chromosomal Rearrangement	Genes in Fusion (5’ or 3’ Segments)	Pathogenic Derivative	Prevalence
t(8;21)(q22;q22.1)	5' RUNX1 / 3'RUNX1T1	der(8)	1- 5% of AML

editv4:Clinical Significance (Diagnosis, Prognosis and Therapeutic Implications).

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• Chromosomal Rearrangements (Gene Fusions)
• Individual Region Genomic Gain/Loss/LOH
• Characteristic Chromosomal Patterns
• Gene Mutations (SNV/INDEL)

Diagnostic:

• The presence of t(8;21)(q22;q22) is diagnostic of a cytogenetic subtype of acute myeloid leukemia with maturation in the neutrophilic lineage.
• When t(8;21)(q22;q22) is present the diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia is made regardless of a blast count less than 20%.

Prognostic:

• t(8;21)(q22;q22) positive AML usually has a good response to chemotherapy and a high complete remission rate with long-term disease-free survival when treated with high dose cytarabine in the consolidation phase. Factors that appear to adversely affected prognosis include CD56 expression and KIT gene mutations. The prognostic significance of other accompanying gene mutations is under investigation.

Therapeutic target:

• t(8;21)(q22;q22) positive AML currently has no molecular target for drug therapy.
• Standard induction 7 + 3 chemotherapy regimen of cytarabine for 7 days plus an anthracycline or anthracenedione for 3 days. In first complete remission patients younger than 60 years without a KIT mutation are treated with high dose cytarabine consolidation therapy. If a KIT mutation is present, bone marrow transplant is performed in first complete remission.
• Recently homoharringtonine, aclarubicin and cytarabine as the first course of induction therapy has been found to be highly effective for acute myeloid leukemia with t(8;21)(q22;q22).

Individual Region Genomic Gain / Loss / LOH

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Chr #	Gain / Loss / Amp / LOH	Minimal Region Genomic Coordinates [Genome Build]	Minimal Region Cytoband	Diagnostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Prognostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Therapeutic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Notes
EXAMPLE: 7	EXAMPLE: Loss	EXAMPLE: chr7:1- 159,335,973 [hg38]	EXAMPLE: chr7	Yes	Yes	No	EXAMPLE: Presence of monosomy 7 (or 7q deletion) is sufficient for a diagnosis of AML with MDS-related changes when there is ≥20% blasts and no prior therapy (add reference).  Monosomy 7/7q deletion is associated with a poor prognosis in AML (add reference).
EXAMPLE: 8	EXAMPLE: Gain	EXAMPLE: chr8:1-145,138,636 [hg38]	EXAMPLE: chr8	No	No	No	EXAMPLE: Common recurrent secondary finding for t(8;21) (add reference).

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9q22 loss

Characteristic Chromosomal Patterns

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Chromosomal Pattern	Diagnostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Prognostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Therapeutic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Notes
EXAMPLE: Co-deletion of 1p and 18q	Yes	No	No	EXAMPLE: See chromosomal rearrangements table as this pattern is due to an unbalanced derivative translocation associated with oligodendroglioma (add reference).

editv4:Characteristic Chromosomal Aberrations / Patterns

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Additional aberrations in >70% of cases with t(8;21); common loss of a sex chromosome or deletion 9q

Trisomy 4 is a rare numerical abnormality detected in 3% of AML patients with t(8;21) (PMIDs: 12682630, 26573082, 27451976). A negative effect on prognosis this group of patients has been attributed to the presence of the mutations in the KIT gene.. Gain of chromosome 4 would likely result in increased dosage of the mutant KIT allele (PMIDs: 16291592, 30899636).

Gene Mutations (SNV / INDEL)

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Gene; Genetic Alteration	Presumed Mechanism (Tumor Suppressor Gene [TSG] / Oncogene / Other)	Prevalence (COSMIC / TCGA / Other)	Concomitant Mutations	Mutually Exclusive Mutations	Diagnostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Prognostic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Therapeutic Significance (Yes, No or Unknown)	Notes
EXAMPLE: TP53; Variable LOF mutations EXAMPLE: EGFR; Exon 20 mutations EXAMPLE: BRAF; Activating mutations	EXAMPLE: TSG	EXAMPLE: 20% (COSMIC) EXAMPLE: 30% (add Reference)	EXAMPLE: IDH1 R123H	EXAMPLE: EGFR amplification				EXAMPLE:  Excludes hairy cell leukemia (HCL) (add reference).

Note: A more extensive list of mutations can be found in cBioportal (https://www.cbioportal.org/), COSMIC (https://cancer.sanger.ac.uk/cosmic), ICGC (https://dcc.icgc.org/) and/or other databases. When applicable, gene-specific pages within the CCGA site directly link to pertinent external content.

editv4:Gene Mutations (SNV/INDEL)

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AML with t(8;21)(q22;q22) has genetic heterogeneity at the molecular level. Several genes have been identified that are frequently mutated in this subset of AML, some of them adversely affecting prognosis.

• KIT mutations occur in 20-25% of cases and are associated with a high risk of relapse in AML with t(8;21)(q22;q22). Patients with KIT mutations have a significantly shorter overall survival and disease free survival periods than those without KIT mutations.

• In a study of 139 t(8;21)(q22;q22) AML patients were investigated for possible mutations in KIT and 10 other genes (ASXL1, FLT3, NPM1, MLL, IDH1, IDH2, KRAS, NRAS, CBL, and JAK2). 49.6% had one mutation in addition to the t(8;21)(q22;q22). These were most often KIT, NRAS and ASXL1. 16.5% of patients had ≥2 mutations. Infrequent accompanying mutated genes found in only 2.9-5% of cases include in decreasing frequency: FLT3-ITD, FLT3-TKD, CBL, and KRAS, IDH2 and JAK2. These mutations did not adversely affect prognosis. NPM1 mutations are thought to be mutually exclusive of RUNX1-RUNX1T1.

• ASXL2 mutations have been identified in greater than 20% of patients with t(8;21), but not in patients with inv(16)/t(16;16) or RUNX1-mutated AML. ASXL2 mutations are similarly frequent in adults and children with t(8;21) and are mutually exclusive with ASXL1 mutations. Although overall survival is similar between ASXL1 and ASXL2 mutant t(8;21) AML patients and their wild-type counterparts, patients with ASXL1 or ASXL2 mutations had a cumulative incidence of relapse that is significantly higher than with their ASXL1 or ASXL2 wild-type counterparts.

• Recurring ZBTB7A mutations have been identified in 23% (13/56) of AML t(8;21) patients, including missense and truncating mutations resulting in alteration or loss of the C-terminal zinc-finger domain of ZBTB7A. The transcription factor ZBTB7A is important for hematopoietic lineage fate decisions and for regulation of glycolysis. On a functional level, it has been shown that ZBTB7A mutations disrupt the transcriptional repressor potential and the anti-proliferative effect of ZBTB7A. The specific association of ZBTB7A mutations with t(8;21) rearranged AML points towards leukemogenic cooperativity between mutant ZBTB7A and the RUNX1/RUNX1T1 fusion.

• WT1 mutations have been found to be relatively common (13.8%) in core binding factor leukemia. Low WT1 transcript levels at diagnosis predicted poor outcomes of acute myeloid leukemia patients with t(8;21) who received chemotherapy or allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Gene	Mutation	Oncogene/Tumor Suppressor/Other	Presumed Mechanism (LOF/GOF/Other; Driver/Passenger)	Prevalence (COSMIC/TCGA/Other)
KIT				20-30%

Other Mutations

Type	Gene/Region/Other
Concomitant Mutations	NRAS and ASXL1
Secondary Mutations
Mutually Exclusive	ASXL1 and ASXL2

Epigenomic Alterations

None

Genes and Main Pathways Involved

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Gene; Genetic Alteration	Pathway	Pathophysiologic Outcome
EXAMPLE: BRAF and MAP2K1; Activating mutations	EXAMPLE: MAPK signaling	EXAMPLE: Increased cell growth and proliferation
EXAMPLE: CDKN2A; Inactivating mutations	EXAMPLE: Cell cycle regulation	EXAMPLE: Unregulated cell division
EXAMPLE:  KMT2C and ARID1A; Inactivating mutations	EXAMPLE:  Histone modification, chromatin remodeling	EXAMPLE:  Abnormal gene expression program

editv4:Genes and Main Pathways Involved

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Genes:

• RUNX1T1 (also known as ETO) on 8q22 is transcribed from telomere to centromere; 3 proline rich domains; 2 zinc finger, and a PEST region in the C-terminus; tissue restricted expression; nuclear localization; putative transcription factor.

• RUNX1 (also known as AML1 and CBFA) on 21q22; contains a runt domain and a transactivation domain in the C-terminus; forms heterodimers; widely expressed; nuclear localization; transcription factor (activator) for various hematopoietic-specific genes.

DNA:

• t(8;21)(q22;q22) results in a 5’RUNX1-3’RUNX1T1 hybrid gene involving fusion of the very 5’ end of the RUNX1T1 gene to RUNX1 in an ~25 kb breakpoint region between exons 5 and 6.

Protein:

• A fusion protein with the N-terminus runt domain (responsible for DNA binding and protein-protein interaction) of RUNX1 fused to the 577 C-terminal residues of RUNX1T1. The reciprocal product is not detected. The fusion protein retains the ability to recognize the RUNX1 consensus DNA binding site (it is a negative dominant competitor with the normal RUNX1) and to dimerize with the CBFβ subunit in the heterodimeric core binding factor. The core binding factor is a transcription factor that plays an essential role in regulation of normal hematopoiesis. It is composed of a DNA-binding CBFα (RUNX1) chain and a non-DNA-binding CBFβ chain. It is likely oncogenic due to altered transcriptional regulation of normal RUNX1 target genes. Animal studies suggest that the fusion proteins alone are not able to induce leukemia and that additional genetic alterations are required for leukemogenic transformation.

Key cellular pathways:

• The normal transcriptional activity of the RUNX1 protein in the core binding factor is affected in a negative manner by the chimeric protein encoded by the RUNX1-RUNX1T1 fusion gene. It has been proposed that the RUNX1-RUNX1T1 protein recruits histone deacetylases and DNA methyl transferase 1 to core binding factor target genes. This leads to increased chromatin deacetylation and promotor hypermethylation, resulting in gene transcriptional repression and disruption of normal cellular pathways of hematopoiesis.

Genetic Diagnostic Testing Methods

• Chromosome analysis, FISH, RT-PCR
• FISH or RT-PCR is needed for cytogenetically cryptic cases with typical blast morphology and immunophenotype
• RT-PCR is employed for minimal residual disease detection

FISH with RUNX1-RUNX1T1 probe set on interphase cells with t(8;21)(q22;q22) translocation. Nancy Hsu and Min Zhang, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA.

Familial Forms

None

Additional Information

None

Links

RUNX1

RUNX1T1

KIT mutations in AML COSMIC database

www.uptodate.com cytogenetics in AML
www.genenames.org RUNX1
www.genenames.org RUNX1T1

References

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Notes

*Primary authors will typically be those that initially create and complete the content of a page. If a subsequent user modifies the content and feels the effort put forth is of high enough significance to warrant listing in the authorship section, please contact the CCGA coordinators (contact information provided on the homepage). Additional global feedback or concerns are also welcome.

Edited by: Fabiola Quintero-Rivera 7/21/2018

*Citation of this Page: “Acute myeloid leukaemia with RUNX1::RUNX1T1 fusion”. Compendium of Cancer Genome Aberrations (CCGA), Cancer Genomics Consortium (CGC), updated 09/6/2024, https://ccga.io/index.php/HAEM5:Acute_myeloid_leukaemia_with_RUNX1::RUNX1T1_fusion.