BAALC and ERG expression levels at diagnosis have no prognosis impact on acute myeloid leukemia patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation

AbstractBrain and acute leukemia, cytoplasmic (BAALC) and ETS-related gene (ERG) expression levels are independent prognostic factors for acute myeloid leukemia (AML); however, their prognostic impacts on AML patients undergoing allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) require further investigation. We studied 71 de novo AML patients treated with allo-HSCT and defined low and high expressers according to the median expression levels ofBAALC andERG at diagnosis respectively. HighBAALC expression was associated with wild-typeNPM1 (P = 0.000) andRUNX1 mutations (P = 0.027). HighERG expression was associated withFLT3-ITD absence (P = 0.003) and wild-typeNPM1 (P = 0.001).BAALC andERG expression levels were significantly correlated with each other (P = 0.001). Survival analyses including Kaplan-Meier curves and univariate and multivariate analysis consistently reported that there were no significant differences for both event-free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) (allP >  0.1), between high versus lowBAALC andERG expressers. Our study suggested that despite of their well-known adverse role in prognosis of AML, neitherBAALC norERG expression levels at diagnosis had effect on survival of AML patients who underwent allo-HSCT.
Source: Annals of Hematology - Category: Hematology Source Type: research