Fifty Years of Studies of the Biology and Therapy of Childhood Leukemia

To the Editor:

The December 1, 1997 issue of Blood included my commentary on 50 years of studies of biology and therapy of childhood leukemia.1 In my acknowledgments, I tried to anticipate the fact that I would be responsible for errors of omission, commission, and also would be unable to properly credit many individuals in the field.

However, there is one glaring omission that I believe requires additional comment. This is the important cloning of the TEL-AML1 fusion gene in two separate laboratories in 1995.2 3 This fusion gene has been particularly important because of its lack of detection by standard cytogenetic methods and because of its independent prognostic significance as reported by several groups as discussed in the Commentary.

I believe that this inclusion helps to clear up one major omission.