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Immunophenotype signature as a tool to define prognostic subgroups in childhood acute myeloid leukemia

Leukemia volume 20, pages 888–891 (2006)Cite this article

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease group morphologically classified, based on the French–American–British (FAB) classification, into eight main subgroups defined as subtypes M0–M7. Besides morphologic differences, genetic abnormalities have been recognized; cytogenetics and molecular analyses are currently used to identify subgroups of AML with different clinical prognosis. However, in spite of available prognostic factors, accurate prediction of risk for treatment failure or relapse is not completely satisfactory. In order to improve risk assignment and develop new therapeutic strategies, gene expression profiling and proteomic analysis seem to offer important improvements in leukemia classification.

Quantitative multivariate analysis from panels of marker proteins has demonstrated that marker protein expression profiles can distinguish specific ALL subtypes.1, 2 Here, we consider the application of immunophenotyping by flow cytometry (FC) to analyze AML samples using panels of antibodies to characterize specific blast cell populations. We test the applicability of unsupervised cluster analysis of immunophenotypic data in finding potential cryptic relations among AML patients. A total of 96 de novo pediatric AML patients (59 males; 37 females; median age 11, range 1–18 years) were investigated using multiparametric FC and analyzed by clustering methods normally applied in high-throughput gene expression profiling to identify new homogeneous subgroups with clinical relevance. In all cases, AML diagnosis was performed by golden standard protocols for morphology, cytochemistry, cytogenetics, immunophenotype and molecular biology.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Hemato-Oncology Laboratory, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    A Zangrando, B Buldini, G te Kronnie & G Basso

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering Processes, University of Padua, Padua, Italy

    A Luchini & S Bicciato

  3. Pediatric Hematology-Oncology Unit, University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    R Rondelli & A Pession

Authors
  1. A Zangrando
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  2. A Luchini
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  3. B Buldini
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  4. R Rondelli
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  6. S Bicciato
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  7. G te Kronnie
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  8. G Basso
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Correspondence to G Basso.

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Zangrando, A., Luchini, A., Buldini, B. et al. Immunophenotype signature as a tool to define prognostic subgroups in childhood acute myeloid leukemia. Leukemia 20, 888–891 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.leu.2404175

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