title: Stability of leukemia-associated immunophenotypes in precursor B-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma: a single institution experience.
abstract: Essentially all cases of precursor B-lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (B-ALL) demonstrate multiple immunophenotypic aberrancies relative to normal maturing B-cell precursors (hematogones). The stability of these aberrancies has relevance to follow-up minimal residual disease analysis. We compared the immunophenotypes at diagnosis and relapse in 51 childhood and adult B-ALLs with flow cytometry (FC) using broad antibody panels. A total of 446 aberrancies were present at diagnosis (median, 9 per case; range, 2-14). All cases retained multiple aberrancies at relapse (median, 8 per case; range, 2-14). Antibody panels at relapse allowed assessment of 383 (85.9%) of the initial 446 aberrancies. Of these, 299 (78.1%) were persistent and 84 (21.9%) were lost at relapse. Overall, 73% of cases showed a loss of at least 1 aberrancy at relapse. However, new aberrancies were detected in 60% of cases. These findings suggest that FC is suitable for the detection of residual B-ALL, provided that follow-up studies are not too narrowly targeted.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, Dallas, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Weina
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Nitin J
authors.initials: NJ
authors.lastname: Karandikar
authors.forename: Robert W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: McKenna
authors.forename: Steven H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kroft
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015703:Antigens, CD / Q000032:analysis; D001402:B-Lymphocytes / Q000166:cytology* / Q000276:immunology; D002051:Burkitt Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology*; D005260:Female; D005434:Flow Cytometry / Q000379:methods; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping / Q000379:methods; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology*; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D015703:Antigens, CD