Autophagy is a critical mechanism of the anti-leukemic effects of ATO and contributes to the ATO-induced degradation of fusion oncoproteins such as PML-RARA in APL cells and BCR-ABL in chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) cells 8-11. This evidence concerns the gene PML and chronic myelogenous leukemia, BCR-ABL1 positive.