title: Cytogenetic studies of infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia: poor prognosis of infants with t(4;11) - a report of the Children's Cancer Group.
abstract: Infants less than 1 year of age at diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have a poor prognosis, which has been attributed primarily to a breakpoint in chromosomal band 11q23 or the MLL gene. Most infants with an 11q23 breakpoint have a t(4;11)(q21 ;q23). We studied the cytogenetics of the leukemia cells of 56 infants on CCG-1883, a single-arm clinical treatment protocol for infant ALL. Twenty-one patients had t(4;11)(q21;q23), seven had other rearrangements with breakpoints in 11q23 (other 11q23), 16 had normal chromosomes, two had t(1;19)(q32;p13), one had >50 chromosomes, and nine had non-recurring structural abnormalities. To determine whether there is a difference in outcome for infants with t(4;11), other 11q23 and the remaining patients, we compared event-free survival (EFS) and other clinical and laboratory features of the above infants. Infants without t(4;11) and those with other 11q23 rearrangements had significantly better EFS than those with t(4;11) (P= 0.007 and P= 0.02, respectively). t(4;11) correlated with age less than 6 months and with CD10 negativity, both of which also were poor prognostic indicators. After adjustment for age, there was still a significant difference in EFS between patients with t(4;11) and those with other 1lq23 rearrangements (P=0.02), and between patients with t(4;11) and those without t(4;11) (P=0.04). Among CD10 negative patients, t(4;11) was associated with a worse EFS (P=0.01). Multivariate analysis showed that after adjusting for a variety of clinical and laboratory features, t(4;11) was the most important prognostic factor for poor outcome, and patients with other 11q23 rearrangements had as good an outcome as the remaining patients without t(4;11).
authors.affiliation: Hughes Institute, St Paul, MN, USA.
authors.forename: N A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Heerema
authors.forename: H N
authors.initials: HN
authors.lastname: Sather
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Arthur
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Hilden
authors.forename: M E
authors.initials: ME
authors.lastname: Trigg
authors.forename: G H
authors.initials: GH
authors.lastname: Reaman
mesh_terms: D002880:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 11; D002894:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 4; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality; D011379:Prognosis; D014178:Translocation, Genetic