When can real-time quantitative RT-PCR effectively define molecular relapse in acute promyelocytic leukemia patients? (Results of the French Belgian Swiss APL Group).
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.
Cassinat
Bruno
B
Unité de Biologie Cellulaire, Hopital Saint-Louis, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris, 75010 Paris, France. bruno.cassinat@sls.aphp.fr
de Botton
Stéphane
S
Kelaidi
Charikleia
C
Ades
Lionel
L
Zassadowski
Fabien
F
Guillemot
Isabelle
I
Schlageter
Marie-Helene
MH
Raffoux
Emmanuel
E
Harousseau
Jean-Luc
JL
Legrand
Olivier
O
Escoffre-Barbe
Martine
M
Reman
Oumedaly
O
Gardembas
Martine
M
Himberlin
Chantal
C
Cahn
Jean Yves
JY
Guyotat
Denis
D
Bouscary
Didier
D
Parry
Anne
A
Rousselot
Philippe
P
Baruchel
Andre
A
Dombret
Hervé
H
Chevret
Sylvie
S
Fenaux
Pierre
P
Chomienne
Christine
C
D006801:Humans; D015473:Leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology*; D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion / Q000235:genetics*; D012008:Recurrence; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
D015514:Oncogene Proteins, Fusion; C093476:promyelocytic leukemia-retinoic acid receptor alpha fusion oncoprotein