title: [Prognostic significance of the NPM-ALK fusion gene in bone marrow and peripheral blood for patients with anaplastic large cell lymphoma].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the expression of NPM- ALK fusion gene in bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) in anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL) patients and its prognostic significance.
  
  
  METHODS
  NPM- ALK fusion gene of 21 BM and 15 PB samples from patients with NPM-ALK positive ALCL was detected by RT- PCR, and the relationship between NPM- ALK expression and prognosis and clinical characters was evaluated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 21 patients, 12 cases were male and 9 case were female with a median age of 9 (range, 2-14) years old. The median follow- up was 31 months. Patients with a positive NPM-ALK expression in BM had a 3-years EFS of (35.6±18.6)%, compared with (91.7±8.0)% for patients with negative NPM-ALK (P=0.038). The incidence of positive expression in BM was significantly higher in patients who had more than 3 organs involved by tumor (P=0.032). 86.7% patients had a concordant results of NPM-ALK expression in PB and BM.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We could evaluate the minimal disseminated disease of NPM-ALK positive ALCL patients by screening the NPM-ALK fusion gene in BM and PB by RT-PCR. The positive expression is associated with a poor prognosis and could be used for stratification of ALCL.
authors: Department of Hematology, Beijing Children's Hospital Affiliated to Capital Medical University, Beijing 100045, China.
authors: Jing
authors: J
authors: Yang
authors: Xiao-xi
authors: XX
authors: Zhao
authors: Ling
authors: L
authors: Jin
authors: Yan-long
authors: YL
authors: Duan
authors: Shuang
authors: S
authors: Huang
authors: Meng
authors: M
authors: Zhang
authors: Rui
authors: R
authors: Zhang
authors: Chun-ju
authors: CJ
authors: Zhou
authors: Yong-hong
authors: YH
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001853:Bone Marrow / Q000378:metabolism; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D017728:Lymphoma, Large-Cell, Anaplastic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D011379:Prognosis; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: C107023:p80(NPM-ALK) protein; D011505:Protein-Tyrosine Kinases