Flow minimal residual disease monitoring of candidate leukemic stem cells defined by the immunophenotype, CD34+CD38lowCD19+ in B-lineage childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
Flow cytometric minimal residual disease (MRD) monitoring could become more powerful if directed towards the disease-maintaining leukemic stem cell (LSC) compartment. Using a cohort of 48 children with B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), we sought the newly proposed candidate-LSC population, CD34(+)CD38(low)CD19(+), at presentation and in end of induction bone marrow samples. We identified the candidate LSC population in 60% of diagnostic samples and its presence correlated with expression of CD38, relative to that of normal B-cell progenitors. In addition, the candidate LSC was not detectable in all MRD positive samples. The absence of the population in 40% of diagnostic and 40% of MRD positive samples does not support the use of this phenotype as a generic biomarker to track LSCs and suggests that this phenotype may be an artifact of CD38 underexpression rather than a biologically distinct LSC population. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00222612.
Wilson
Kerrie
K
Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.
Case
Marian
M
Minto
Lynne
L
Bailey
Simon
S
Bown
Nick
N
Jesson
Jenny
J
Lawson
Sarah
S
Vormoor
Josef
J
Irving
Julie
J
D051997:ADP-ribosyl Cyclase 1 / Q000378:metabolism*; D018941:Antigens, CD19 / Q000378:metabolism*; D018952:Antigens, CD34 / Q000378:metabolism*; D002648:Child; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005434:Flow Cytometry; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000276:immunology; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D015452:Precursor B-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology
D018941:Antigens, CD19; D018952:Antigens, CD34; D051997:ADP-ribosyl Cyclase 1