What is the BCR-ABL blood test for?

A BCR-ABL test is most often used to diagnose or rule out chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or a specific form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) called Ph-positive ALL. Ph-positive means a Philadelphia chromosome was found. The test is not used to diagnose other types of leukemia.

What is a high BCR-ABL?

Cells with high Bcr-Abl expression levels are resistant to conventional cytotoxic drugs, and also require higher levels of STI571 (an inhibitor of Bcr-Abl), to induce cell death. Co-treatment with cytotoxic drugs and STI571 increased the sensitivity of the drug-resistant cells.

What type of biomarker is BCR-ABL?

BCR-ABL1 Fusion is a predictive biomarker for use of dasatinib, bosutinib, nilotinib, imatinib, and ponatinib in patients. Of the therapies with BCR-ABL1 Fusion as a predictive biomarker, 4 are FDA-approved and 5 have NCCN guidelines in at least one clinical setting.

Can leukemia be detected in a blood test?

Blood tests. By looking at a sample of your blood, your doctor can determine if you have abnormal levels of red or white blood cells or platelets — which may suggest leukemia. A blood test may also show the presence of leukemia cells, though not all types of leukemia cause the leukemia cells to circulate in the blood.

What is BCR-ABL ABL ratio?

The log reduction of BCR-ABL:ABL ratio is calculated based on the testing laboratory’s standard that previously untreated CML patients (N = 120) have a median BCR-ABL:ABL ratio of 4.1325 from peripheral blood samples.

What does ABL gene stand for?

Tyrosine-protein kinase ABL1 also known as ABL1 is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the ABL1 gene (previous symbol ABL) located on chromosome 9.

What does a high BCR mean?

If the BCR-ABL1 level rises, then it indicates disease progression or recurrence and it may also indicate that the person has become resistant to imatinib. Additional genetic testing is often performed to detect the development of BCR-ABL1 kinase domain mutations associated with imatinib resistance.