There is barely any information about the prognostic significance of FLT3 expression and mutational status in cytogenetically distinct subgroups of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We analyzed the presence of FLT3-tyrosine kinase domain (TKD) and FLT3-internal tandem duplication (ITD) mutations as well as FLT3 expression levels in 54 newly diagnosed patients with B-ALL (n ¼ 49) or T-ALL (n ¼ 5). All B/T-ALL samples tested negative for the presence of FLT3-TKD or FLT3-ITD. None of the T-ALL and E2A-PBX1 þ B-ALL overexpressed FLT3. In contrast, mainly MLL-AF4 þ B-ALL but also ETV6-RUNX1 þ , BCR-ABL þ or B-ALL displaying normal cytogenetics exhibited significantly higher FLT3 expression levels than normal bone marrow, supporting that aberrantly increased transcription of FLT3, rather than activating FLT3 mutations, contributes to the pathogenesis of these B-ALL. Using the median FLT3 expression as cut-off value we found that high-level FLT3 expression is associated with an extremely poor 1-year overall survival (OS; 0 vs 71%; P ¼ 0.002) and disease-free survival (DFS; 0 vs 43%; P ¼ 0.03) in MLL-AF4 þ B-ALL but not in MLL-germline B-ALL. Cox regression analysis with OS/DFS as end points showed that age414 years and high-level FLT3 expression were independent prognostic factors when all ALL patients were analyzed together. Importantly, when the MLL-AF4 þ B-ALL subgroup was analyzed separately, high-level FLT3 expression was the only independent prognostic factor for OS and treatment outcome. These findings indicate that high FLT3 expression identifies MLL-AF4 þ ALL patients at very high risk of treatment failure and poor survival, emphasizing the value of ongoing/future clinical trials for FLT3 inhibitors.

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Imatinib is a Bcr-Abl inhibitor used as first-line therapy of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). p21(Cip1), initially described as a cell cycle inhibitor, also protects from apoptosis in some models. We describe that imatinib down-regulates p21(Cip1) expression in CML cells. Using K562 cells with inducible p21 expression and transient transfections we found that p21 confers partial resistance to imatinib-induced apoptosis. This protection is not related to the G2-arrest provoked by p21, a decrease in the imatinib activity against Bcr-Abl or a cytoplasmic localization of p21. The results suggest an involvement of p21(Cip1) in the response to imatinib in CML.

The level of BCR-ABL1 reached after treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors is an effective marker of the therapeutic response and a good survival predictor in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients. However, no agreement has yet been achieved about either the standardization of the technique to determine BCR-ABL1 or the interpretation of the results. The aim of this study was to compare the method currently recommended by the European Leukemia Net, which includes the application of a conversion factor to express the results in international scale, with an automated method (Xpert BCR-ABL™, Cepheid). BCR-ABL1 transcript quantification was performed in 117 samples from CML patients in two different laboratories by both methods, and the results were compared by statistical procedures. A high linear correlation was obtained in the results between the two methods. The concordance at logarithmic intervals reached 62 %. When the major molecular response (MMR) was analyzed, 85 % agreement was achieved. The automated method provides reproducible results and does not show significant differences compared with the traditional method. As a clinical tool, Xpert correctly classified the patients in MMR and can be considered a useful alternative for the molecular follow-up of CML patients.