title: Prognostic significance of CD20 expression in childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
abstract: CD20 expression is associated with inferior survival in adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). We analyzed the prognostic impact of CD20 expression in 353 children with B-cell precursor ALL treated in 3 consecutive St Jude Total Therapy studies. CD20 expression (> 20%) was found in 169 patients (48%) and was more frequent in patients between 1 and 10 years of age than in those younger than 1 or older than 10 years (P = .001). None of 14 patients with MLL-AF4 expressed CD20. There was no association between CD20 expression and E2A-PBX, TEL-AML1, ploidy, white blood cell count at diagnosis, or sex. In contrast to the experience in adult ALL, our patients with CD20 expression tended to have a better treatment outcome than those without the expression: 5-year event-free survival 84% +/- 2.9% versus 78% +/- 3.1% (P = .08). These data suggest that CD20 expression is not associated with inferior outcome in pediatric patients treated with contemporary regimens.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology-Oncology, St Jude Children's Research Hospital, 332 N Lauderdale St, Memphis, TN 38105, USA. sima.jeha@stjude.org
authors.forename: Sima
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jeha
authors.forename: Frederick
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Behm
authors.forename: Deqing
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Pei
authors.forename: John T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Sandlund
authors.forename: Raul C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Ribeiro
authors.forename: Bassem I
authors.initials: BI
authors.lastname: Razzouk
authors.forename: Jeffrey E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Rubnitz
authors.forename: Nobuko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hijiya
authors.forename: Scott C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Howard
authors.forename: Cheng
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.forename: Ching-Hon
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Pui
mesh_terms: D000367:Age Factors; D018951:Antigens, CD20 / Q000032:analysis*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D015452:Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000401:mortality; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence
chemical_list: D018951:Antigens, CD20