title: Association of acute myeloid leukemia's most immature phenotype with risk groups and outcomes.
abstract: The precise phenotype and biology of acute myeloid leukemia stem cells remain controversial, in part because the "gold standard" immunodeficient mouse engraftment assay fails in a significant fraction of patients and identifies multiple cell-types in others. We sought to analyze the clinical utility of a novel assay for putative leukemia stem cells in a large prospective cohort. The leukemic clone's most primitive hematopoietic cellular phenotype was prospectively identified in 109 newly-diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia patients, and analyzed against clinical risk groups and outcomes. Most (80/109) patients harbored CD34(+)CD38(-) leukemia cells. The CD34(+)CD38(-) leukemia cells in 47 of the 80 patients displayed intermediate aldehyde dehydrogenase expression, while normal CD34(+)CD38(-) hematopoietic stem cells expressed high levels of aldehyde dehydrogenase. In the other 33/80 patients, the CD34(+)CD38(-) leukemia cells exhibited high aldehyde dehydrogenase activity, and most (28/33, 85%) harbored poor-risk cytogenetics or FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 internal tandem translocations. No CD34(+) leukemia cells could be detected in 28/109 patients, including 14/21 patients with nucleophosmin-1 mutations and 6/7 acute promyelocytic leukemia patients. The patients with CD34(+)CD38(-) leukemia cells with high aldehyde dehydrogenase activity manifested a significantly lower complete remission rate, as well as poorer event-free and overall survivals. The leukemic clone's most immature phenotype was heterogeneous with respect to CD34, CD38, and ALDH expression, but correlated with acute myeloid leukemia risk groups and outcomes. The strong clinical correlations suggest that the most immature phenotype detectable in the leukemia might serve as a biomarker for "clinically-relevant" leukemia stem cells. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT01349972.
authors.affiliation: Levine Cancer Institute, Charlotte, NC.
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Gerber
authors.affiliation: Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.
authors.forename: Joshua F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Zeidner
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Sarah
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Morse
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Amanda L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Blackford
authors.forename: Brandy
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Perkins
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Breann
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Yanagisawa
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Morsberger
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Judith
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Karp
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ning
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Gocke
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: Gary L
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Rosner
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA.
authors.forename: B Douglas
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA rjjones@jhmi.edu.
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Jones
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015415:Biomarkers; D001854:Bone Marrow Cells / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016130:Immunophenotyping; D017404:In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D007621:Karyotyping; D015470:Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000401:mortality*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009154:Mutation; D000090243:Nucleophosmin; D010641:Phenotype; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers; C000715570:Npm1 protein, mouse; D000090243:Nucleophosmin
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