RARA and hematopoietic and lymphoid cell neoplasm: RA’s potential as an anti-cancer drug was first described in the 1980s when it was shown to have therapeutic activity in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL)3, a hematologic cancer characterized by fusion of the retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARA) and promyelocytic leukemia (PML) genes4,5.