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Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia – combined cytogenetic, immunophenotypical and molecular analysis of 77 cases

Leukemia volume 16, pages 1685–1690 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

We used karyotyping, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), Southern blotting, and RT-PCR in order to analyze prospectively 77 infants (less than 1 year of age) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia for the occurrence of 11q23/MLL rearrangements and/or other cytogenetic abnormalities. Out of the 69 informative samples we found an 11q23/MLL rearrangement in 42 cases (61%). Regarding only pro-B ALL cases, the incidence of 11q23/MLL rearranged cases, however, reached more than 90% The infants were treated within the therapy studies ALL-BFM90, ALL-BFM95 and CoALL-05–92. For patients with an adequate follow-up of 4 years the event-free survival of the 11q23/MLL-positive and 11q23/MLL-negative group was 0.2 or 0.64, respectively (P = 0.024). The monoclonal antibody 7.1. (moab 7.1) does not react with normal hematopoetic precursors or mature blood cells but was shown to specifically react with leukemic cells bearing a rearrangement of chromosome 11q23 or the MLL gene, respectively. We, therefore, specifically addressed the question whether the reactivity of moab 7.1, as determined by flow cytometry, may substitute for molecular testing of an 11q23/MLL rearrangement in this cohort of infant ALLs. Reactivity of moab 7.1 indicated a 11q23/MLL rearrangement with a specificity of 100%. However, five of the 11q23/MLL-positive cases did not react with moab 7.1 indicating a sensitivity of 84% only. Three of these five moab 7.1-negative but 11q23/MLL-positive cases could be identified by their unique expression pattern of CD65s and/or CD15. Thus, 95% of all 11q23/MLL-positive ALL cases in infancy may be identified by flow cytometry based on their expression of CD15, CD65s and/or moab 7.1.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by grants from the ‘Mildred-Scheel-Stiftung for Cancer Research’ (10–1658-Bo 2), the ‘Monika Kutzner-Foundation’, and the ‘Forschungshilfe Station Peiper’.

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Author notes

  1. A Borkhardt, C Wuchter and S Viehmann: The first three authors contributed equally to this study

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Hematology and Oncology, Children's University Hospital, Giessen, Germany

    A Borkhardt, S Viehmann, S Pils, A Teigler-Schlegel & J Harbott

  2. Department of Hematology, Robert-Rössle Cancer Center, Charitè, Humboldt University Berlin, Oncology and Tumor Immunology, Berlin, Germany

    C Wuchter & W-D Ludwig

  3. Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Medical School Hannover, Hannover, Germany

    M Stanulla, M Zimmermann & M Schrappe

  4. University Hospital Hamburg, Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Hamburg, Germany

    G Janka-Schaub

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Borkhardt, A., Wuchter, C., Viehmann, S. et al. Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia – combined cytogenetic, immunophenotypical and molecular analysis of 77 cases. Leukemia 16, 1685–1690 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2402595

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