title: Influence of M-BCR breakpoint sites on the duration of chronic phase in 100 patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia.
abstract: Rearrangements of the bcr (M-BCR) gene were studied in 100 patients with chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML). To determine the significance of a chimeric gene expression in the progression of CML, we analyzed 43 patients for bcr-ABL chimeric mRNA expression. Both DNA and RNA analyses revealed a possible influence of breakpoint sites in the bcr region on the duration of the chronic phase. Patients with the breakpoint located at about the 1-kb region between BamHI and HindIII in bcr exon 3 (region C2) had a significantly shorter chronic phase (31 months) (p = 0.028) than patients in whom the breakpoint was located in other regions. When the bcr locus was divided into 5' and 3' regions as for the BamHI cleavage site located near the 5' region of bcr exon 3, the chronic phase duration in patients with the 5' site (HindIII-BamHI) and 3' site (BamHI-EcoRI site) was 75 and 38 months, respectively. However, the difference was not statistically significant (p = 0.128). These results suggest that only the breakpoint site at C2 on the bcr locus, rather than breakpoint sites in other regions, has an important role in the progression of CML.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Hiroshima University, Japan.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hashimoto
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Oguma
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dohy
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kamada
mesh_terms: D002874:Chromosome Mapping; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl / Q000235:genetics*; D016313:Genes, abl; D006801:Humans; D015464:Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic, BCR-ABL Positive / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm / Q000235:genetics; D015183:Restriction Mapping; D016019:Survival Analysis; D014178:Translocation, Genetic
chemical_list: D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D012334:RNA, Neoplasm; D016044:Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl