CASE REPORT article
Front. Med.
Sec. Hematology
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1651742
This article is part of the Research TopicDiagnostic, Prognostic and Predictive Markers in LeukemiaView all 3 articles
Ultra-Late Relapse of Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia 18 Years After Complete Remission: A Case Report and Literature Review
Provisionally accepted
- Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
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Late relapse of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is associated with high mortality rates.While APL typically shows a low incidence of relapse after achieving complete remission (CR) for more than seven years, we report a rare case of APL relapse occurring 18 years after CR was achieved. The patient was successfully treated with a combination of arsenic trioxide (ATO) and all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA), leading to favorable outcomes. Additionally, we review our treatment experience and provide a comprehensive analysis of the existing literature, summarizing the characteristics of reported APL cases that relapsed after maintaining CR for over seven years.
Keywords: Acute promyelocytic leukemia, arsenic trioxide, All-trans retinoic acid, Ultra-late relapse, a case report and literature review
Received: 22 Jun 2025; Accepted: 18 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Gao, An, Li, Shi, Zhou, Du, Huang, Ren and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yan Chen, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, China
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