In the great majority of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) the reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22, t(9;22)(q34;q11), resulting in the Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome produces fusion DNA sequences consisting of the 5 part of the major breakpoint cluster region-1 (M-BCR-1) and the ABL protooncogene which encodes for the P210BCR-ABL phosphoprotein with tyrosine kinase activity implicated in the pathogenesis of CML.