title: When can real-time quantitative RT-PCR effectively define molecular relapse in acute promyelocytic leukemia patients? (Results of the French Belgian Swiss APL Group).
abstract: 10-20% of APL patients relapse and the challenge remains to early identify these patients to improve survival rate. We report PML-RARalpha transcript detection by RQ-PCR in 260 consecutive APL patients (n = 970 samples). 223 patients with samples of sufficient RNA quality to demonstrate they reached molecular remission were monitored for MRD. During follow-up, 38 of these patients were tested positive for PML-RARalpha mRNA. 13 out of the 38 patients (34%) effectively developed hematological relapse. In the first positive sample, specific PML-RARalpha NCN thresholds over which, or under which, patients could effectively be predicted to relapse or not, were identified and subsequently validated in a second cohort.
authors.affiliation: Unité de Biologie Cellulaire, Hopital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75010 Paris, France. bruno.cassinat@sls.aphp.fr
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cassinat
authors.forename: Stéphane
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: de Botton
authors.forename: Charikleia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Kelaidi
authors.forename: Lionel
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ades
authors.forename: Fabien
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zassadowski
authors.forename: Isabelle
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Guillemot
authors.forename: Marie-Helene
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Schlageter
authors.forename: Emmanuel
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Raffoux
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Harousseau
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Legrand
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escoffre-Barbe
authors.forename: Oumedaly
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Reman
authors.forename: Martine
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gardembas
authors.forename: Chantal
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Himberlin
authors.forename: Jean Yves
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Cahn
authors.forename: Denis
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Guyotat
authors.forename: Didier
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bouscary
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Parry
authors.forename: Philippe
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rousselot
authors.forename: Andre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Baruchel
authors.forename: Hervé
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dombret
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Chevret
authors.forename: Pierre
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Fenaux
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Chomienne
mesh_terms: D006801:Humans; D015473:Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / Q000235:genetics*; D012008:Recurrence; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion; C093476:promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor alpha fusion oncoprotein