Wilms' tumor-1 transcript in peripheral blood helps diagnose acute myeloid leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome in patients with pancytopenia.
OBJECTIVE
Pancytopenia is caused by acute myeloid leukemia (AML), myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), aplastic anemia (AA), or by non-hematological diseases. Because Wilms' tumor-1 (WT1) is overexpressed in patients with AML and MDS, its expression level may be helpful for diagnosing these hematological malignancies.


METHODS
We retrospectively investigated the WT1 transcripts in peripheral blood (PB) from 47 patients with decreased blood cell counts.


RESULTS
The final diagnoses included AML, MDS, AA, drug poisoning, and non-hematological diseases. PB WT1 mRNA was overexpressed in AML and MDS, whereas the patients with other diseases mostly tested negatively for the transcript. The patients with MDS with higher marrow blast counts had higher PB WT1 mRNA levels. The sensitivity of the PB WT1 transcript in detecting AML and MDS was 78%, and the specificity was 90%.


CONCLUSIONS
The WT1 mRNA level in PB may help diagnose AML and MDS in patients with pancytopenia.
Department of Hematology and Oncology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Fukui, Matsuoka, Eiheiji, Fukui, Japan. tyamauch@u-fukui.ac.jp
Takahiro
T
Yamauchi
Yasufumi
Y
Matsuda
Mihoko
M
Takai
Toshiki
T
Tasaki
Naoko
N
Hosono
Eiju
E
Negoro
Satoshi
S
Ikegaya
Kazutaka
K
Takagi
Shinji
S
Kishi
Akira
A
Yoshida
Yoshimasa
Y
Urasaki
Takanori
T
Ueda
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009190:Myelodysplastic Syndromes / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D010198:Pancytopenia / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D025721:WT1 Proteins / Q000097:blood*
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D025721:WT1 Proteins