Complete morphologic and molecular remission after introduction of dasatinib in the treatment of a pediatric patient with t‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and ABL1 amplification

T‐cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) accounts for 15% of ALL cases in children and has been associated with a worse prognosis. Cytogenetic studies show an abnormal karyotype in 50–60% of the T‐cell ALL patients; ABL1 fusions are present in approximately 8% of the cases. Dasatinib, a second‐generation tyrosine kinase inhibitor, directly targets the BCR‐ABL gene. We describe a pediatric case of T‐cell ALL with amplification of the ABL1 gene in which remission was achieved only after the addition of dasatinib to conventional chemotherapy. Pediatr Blood Cancer 2012;59:333–334. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.