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Acute promyelocytic leukemia, commonly called APL, is a malignancy of the bone marrow in which there is a deficiency of mature blood cells in the myeloid line of cells and an excess of immature cells called promyelocytes. APL is due to a translocation (an exchange of chromosome material) between chromosomes 15 and 17 which is symbolized t(15;17). This translocation is not a mere marker of APL. It is the cause of APL.