title: Elevated AF1q expression is a poor prognostic marker for adult acute myeloid leukemia patients with normal cytogenetics.
abstract: Nearly half of the patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia have normal cytogenetics (NC-AML) and are classified as intermediate risk, but their 5-year overall survival (OS) ranges from 24 to 42%. Therefore, molecular biomarkers to identify poor-risk patients are needed. Elevated AF1q expression in the absence of specific poor cytogenetics is associated with poor outcomes in pediatric patients with AML and adult patients with myelodysplastic syndrome. We examined AF1q expression in 290 patients with NC-AML. We found that patients with low AF1q (n = 73) expression (AF1q(low)) have better OS (P = 0.026), disease-free survival (P = 0.1), and complete remission rate (P = 0.06) when compared with patients with high AF1q expression (AF1q(high) n = 217). The patients with AF1q(high) had significantly greater incidence of concurrent tyrosine kinase3 internal tandem duplication. A subgroup of the patients with AF1q(high) who received allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT) had a significant better relapse-free survival when compared with patients who received chemotherapy/autologous SCT (P = 0.04). This study suggests that high AF1q expression is a poor prognostic marker for adult patients with NC-AML.
authors.forename: Crawford J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Strunk
authors.forename: Uwe
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Platzbecker
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Thiede
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Schaich
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Illmer
authors.forename: Zizhen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Leahy
authors.forename: Chunbiao
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Xiuyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.forename: Mary J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Laughlin
authors.forename: Hillard M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Lazarus
authors.forename: Stanton L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Gerson
authors.forename: Kevin D
authors.initials: KD
authors.lastname: Bunting
authors.forename: Gerhard
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ehninger
authors.forename: William
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Tse
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001798:Blood Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D020732:Cytogenetic Analysis; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism*; D011379:Prognosis; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D033581:Stem Cell Transplantation; D014182:Transplantation, Autologous; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D055815:Young Adult; D051941:fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3 / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D001798:Blood Proteins; C091736:MLLT11 protein, human; D009363:Neoplasm Proteins; D011518:Proto-Oncogene Proteins; D051941:fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3