title: CHP2 gene expression and quantitation in Egyptian patients with acute leukemia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  CHP2 (calcineurin B homologous protein 2) is identified as a tumor-associated antigen highly expressed in different malignancies. It plays a critical role in cancer cell development, proliferation, motility and survival. It is suggested that the human tumor related gene CHP2 expression in leukemia primary cells and leukemia cell lines significantly increase, which may play an important role in growth process of leukemia cells.
  
  
  METHODS
  In this study, the expression of CHP2 gene was analyzed in 10 normal healthy controls and 40 patients with de novo acute leukemia (20 AML and 20 ALL). CHP2 expression was analyzed using a real-time quantitative reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RTQ-PCR) to investigate a possible relation, association or correlation with the clinical features of AL (acute leukemia) at diagnosis, such as age, gender, lineage, HB, TLC, platelet count, BM blast cell infiltration and risk group.
  
  
  RESULTS
  CHP2 was highly expressed in 13/40 AL studied patients (7/20 AML and 6/20 ALL) with mean expression level of 2.7 while it was not expressed in any of the controls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many studies suggest that CHP2 expression is a novel prognostic marker in AL and thus needs to be incorporated into the patient stratification and treatment protocols. In addition, a quarter of AL patients fail therapy and novel treatments that are focused on undermining specifically the leukemic process are needed urgently.
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni Suef University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Amira Ahmed
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Hammam
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni Suef University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Hisham Hasan
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Eissa
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Faculty OF Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Mohamed Roshdy
authors.initials: MR
authors.lastname: El Masry
authors.affiliation: Department of Clinical Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Beni Suef University, Egypt.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mahmoud
keywords: AL; CHP2; RTQ-PCR