RT-PCR diagnosis of recurrent rearrangements in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Argentina

Alonso, Cristina N.; Gallego, Marta S.; Rossi, Jorge G.; Medina, Adriana; Rubio, Patricia L.; Bernasconi, Andrea R.; Zubizarreta, Pedro A.; Felice, María S.

doi:10.1016/j.leukres.2011.12.003

« Previous Next »Leukemia Research
Volume 36, Issue 6 , Pages 704-708, June 2012

RT-PCR diagnosis of recurrent rearrangements in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Argentina

Cristina N. Alonso
- Department of Hematology and Oncology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Corresponding author at: Department of Hematology and Oncology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Combate de los Pozos 1881, Buenos Aires (CP 1245) República Argentina. Tel.: +54 11 4308 4300x1448; fax: +54 11 4308 5325.
Marta S. Gallego
- Department of Genetics, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Jorge G. Rossi
- Department of Immunology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Adriana Medina
- Department of Hematology and Oncology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Patricia L. Rubio
- Department of Hematology and Oncology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Andrea R. Bernasconi
- Department of Immunology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Pedro A. Zubizarreta
- Department of Hematology and Oncology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina
María S. Felice
- Department of Hematology and Oncology, Hospital Nacional de Pediatría “Prof. Dr. Juan P. Garrahan”, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Received 21 September 2011; received in revised form 15 November 2011; accepted 7 December 2011. published online 09 January 2012.

Abstract

The present study was performed to establish the prevalence of the recurrent fusion transcripts in Argentinean pediatric patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). A total of 380 newly diagnosed children (including 50 infants and 44 T-ALL) were screened by RT-PCR; the incidence of recurrent rearrangements was: ETV6-RUNX1, 12.9%; TCF3-PBX1, 5.0%; BCR-ABL1, 1.6%; and MLL rearrangements, 10.5%. STIL-TAL1 was detected in 22.7% of T-ALL cases. In B-ALL cases, the pEFS was significantly influenced by the presence of genetic alterations. RT-PCR studies improved patients’ stratification and also the overall outcome of children treated in a pediatric hospital from a developing country.

Keywords: Pediatric, ALL, RT-PCR, Recurrent translocations, Prognosis, Epidemiology