We describe a newborn with acute monocytic leukemia who underwent spontaneous remission. Chromosomal analysis of this patient's leukemic blasts identified a translocation between 5q31 and 6q21. Chromosome 5 has been implicated in adult leukemogenesis but only rarely in childhood leukemia. Several hematopoietic growth factors and growth factor receptors have been mapped to the long arm of chromosome 5. This report discusses the possible role of these gene products in inducing leukemia in our index case.