AML Atlas, Facts & Trends: M5

"Compared with daunorubicin, idarubicin has a higher lipid coefficient, which results in more rapid cellular uptake8 and stronger binding to DNA9; consequently, the rate of single-strand DNA breaks in tumor cells is higher."^[10,11]
-E. Berman, Oncology, 1993.

Acute monocytic leukemia (M5a)

Blasts with abundant cytoplasm, nuclear indentations and nucleoli.

Translocation t(9;11)(p22;q23) commonly seen in M5a subtype.