title: ETS-related gene is a novel prognostic factor in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
abstract: The ETS-related gene (ERG) has been demonstrated to be associated with overall survival in cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia and acute T cell-lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) in adult patients. However, there are no data available regarding the impact of ERG expression on childhood ALL. In the present study, ERG expression levels were analyzed in bone marrow samples from 119 ALL pediatric patients. ALL patients demonstrated higher ERG expression compared with the controls (P<0.0001). In addition, low ERG expression identified a group of patients with higher white blood cell counts (P=0.011), higher percentages of T-ALL immunophenotype (P=0.027), and higher relapse rates (P=0.009). Survival analyses demonstrated that low ERG expression was associated with inferior relapse-free survival (RFS) in childhood ALL (P=0.036) and was an independent prognostic factor in multivariable analyses for RFS. In conclusion, low ERG expression is associated with poor outcomes and may be used to serve as a molecular prognostic marker to identify patients with a high risk of relapse in childhood ALL.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hai-Zhao
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ming
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jia
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Ze-Bin
authors.initials: ZB
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Jun
authors.initials: XJ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Si-Si
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Jing-Ying
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ping
authors.initials: XP
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology-Oncology, Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, Key Laboratory of Reproductive Genetics, Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education, Hangzhou, Zhejiang 310003, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Yong-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Tang
keywords: ERG; acute lymphoblastic leukemia; childhood; prognosis; relapse