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Tandem duplication of the FLT3 gene is infrequent in infant acute leukemia

Leukemia volume 14, pages 945–947 (2000)Cite this article

Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) is a class III receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) which is associated with the proliferation and differentiation of normal hematopoietic stem cells.1 In recent years, an internal tandem duplication within JM/TK-1 domains as a somatic mutation of the FLT3 gene has been reported in five (16.7%) of 30 adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML),2 in 15 (20.3%) of 74 adult patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL),3 in seven (7.6%) of 92 adult patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and AML with trilineage myelodysplasia,4 but in none of 20 patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)5 or 50 patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The patients with this duplication have been associated with hyperleukocytosis3 and a poor prognosis.6 In childhood hematological malignancies, we found the tandem duplication of the FLT3 gene in 12 (13.8%) of 87 AML patients, all of whom died within 47 months. We also found two (4%) of 50 ALL patients who had mixed lineage phenotype, but none among patients with MDS or juvenile chronic myelogenous leukemia (JCML).7 There were, however, no reports of FLT3 duplication in infant leukemia. Here, we examined tandem duplication of the FLT3 gene in infant acute leukemia, which is known to often have myeloid phenotype and a poor prognosis.8

One hundred and eight infant acute leukemia patients under 1 year of age including 23 with AML, 82 with ALL, and three with acute mixed lineage leukemia according to the French–American–British (FAB) classification were examined in this study. Cytogenetic analysis of these infant leukemia patients demonstrated various abnormal karyotypes, including 32 patients with t(4;11) (q21; q23), 14 patients with t(11;19)(q23;p13), six patients with t(9;11)(p22;q23), five patients with other 11q23 translocations, and 20 patients with other chromosomal abnormalities. Eleven patients were judged as having normal chromosomes and 20 patients as having unknown karyotype. Among them, MLL gene rearrangement was found in 66 (64.1%) of 103 patients examined, including 14 AML, 50 ALL, and two mixed lineage leukemia patients.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Cancer Research from the Ministry of Health and Welfare of Japan, a Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture of Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan

    F Xu, T Taki & Y Hayashi

  2. Department of Cancer Cytogentics, RIRBM, Hiroshima University, Japan

    M Eguchi & N Kamada

  3. Division of Pediatrics, Hamanomachi Hospital, Japan

    E Ishii

  4. Department of Pediatrics, Iwate Medical College, Japan

    M Endo

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Japan Infant Leukemia Study Group

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Xu, F., Taki, T., Eguchi, M. et al. Tandem duplication of the FLT3 gene is infrequent in infant acute leukemia. Leukemia 14, 945–947 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2401760

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