The Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome, the product of t(9:22), is the cytogenetic 
hallmark of chronic myelogenous leukemia. The c-abl oncogene on chromosome 9 is 
translocated to the Ph chromosome and linked to a breakpoint cluster region 
(bcr), which is part of a large bcr gene. This results in the formation of a 
bcr-c-abl fusion gene, which is transcribed into an 8.5 kb chimeric mRNA 
encoding a 210 kd bcr-c-abl fusion protein. The Ph chromosome is also found in 
acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL). Although the c-abl is translocated and a 
new 190 kd c-abl protein has been identified, no breakpoints are observed in the 
bcr (Ph+bcr- ALL). Here we show that in Ph+bcr- ALL, breakpoints in chromosome 
22 occur within the same bcr gene, but more 5' of the bcr. Cloning of a chimeric 
bcr-c-abl cDNA demonstrates that the fusion gene is transcribed into a 7 kb 
mRNA, encoding a novel fusion protein.