Outcome for children with childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who relapse is poor. To gain insight into the mechanisms of relapse, we analyzed gene-expression profiles in 35 matched diagnosis/relapse pairs as well as 60 uniformly treated children at relapse using the Affymetrix platform. Matched-pair analyses revealed significant differences in the expression of genes involved in cell-cycle regulation, DNA repair, and apoptosis between diagnostic and earlyrelapse samples. Many of these pathways have been implicated in tumorigenesis previously and are attractive targets for intervention strategies. In contrast, no common pattern of changes was observed among late-relapse pairs. Earlyrelapse samples were more likely to be similar to their respective diagnostic sample while we noted greater divergence in gene
Genes and pathways that play a role in early blast regression may identify patients who may be at risk for inferior responses to treatment. A fully validated predictive gene expression signature was defined for high-risk ALL that provided insight into the biologic mechanisms of treatment failure.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.