Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 mutations in childhood acute leukemias and their association with prognosis.
BACKGROUND
In recent years, Fms-like tyrosine kinase (FLT) 3 has been the subject of several studies as a prognostic marker.


OBJECTIVE
In this study, the presence of FLT3 mutations in childhood acute leukemias patients and their association with prognosis were investigated.


METHODS
A total of 120 patients, 80 with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 40 with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML), were included. Real time polymerase chain reaction methods on a high resolution melting analysis device were used to determine FLT3 mutations.


RESULTS
FLT3/ITD (internal tandem duplication) mutations were found in 6 (7.5%) of the patients with ALL and in 9 (22.5%) of those with AML, whereas no FLT3/TKD (trans kinase domain) mutation was evident in any case. There was no difference between the ALL patients positive and negative for FLT3/ITD with regard to overall survival (OS), event free survival (EFS) and disease free survival (DFS) (p=0.37, p=0.23, p=0.023, respectively). However, in FLT3/ITD positive and negative AML patients, there was a statistically significant difference in OS (p=0.0041), but not EFS and DFS (p=0.09, p=0.095, respectively). A significant difference was found between age and FLT3/ITD positivity (p=0.036).


CONCLUSIONS
We found that FLT3/ITD positivity increased with age and that it was associated with decrease in OS in AML patients, providing further evidence that it is an independent factor negatively influencing prognosis.
Department of Pediatric Oncology and Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Adana, Turkey.
Bircan Hizli
BH
Karabacak
Fatih
F
Erbey
Ibrahim
I
Bayram
Sema
S
Yilmaz
Can
C
Acipayam
Yurdanur
Y
Kilinç
Atila
A
Tanyeli
D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation; D054198:Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / Q000235:genetics* / Q000401:mortality*; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence; D051941:fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3 / Q000235:genetics*
D051941:fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3