Low EVI1 expression at diagnosis predicted poor outcomes in pediatric
Ph-negative B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients
Abstract
Background: Abnormal high ecotropic viral integration site 1 (EVI1)
expression was recognized as a poor prognostic factor in acute myeloid
leukemia (AML) patients. However, its prognostic impact in B cell
precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL) remains unknown.
Procedures: A total of 176 pediatric Ph-negative BCP-ALL patients who
received at least 1 course of chemotherapy and received chemotherapy
only during follow-up were retrospectively tested EVI1 transcript levels
by real-time quantitative PCR at diagnosis and survival analysis was
performed. Clinical and EVI1 expression data of 129 pediatric BCP-ALL
patients were downloaded from the therapeutically applicable research to
generate effective treatments (TARGET) database for validation. Results:
In our cohort, the median EVI1 transcript levels were 0.33% (range,
0.0068-136.2%), and 0.10% was determined as the optimal cutoff value
for patient grouping by receiver operating characteristic curve. Low
EVI1 expression (<0.10%) was significantly related to lower
5-year relapse-free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) rates
(P=0.017 and 0.018), respectively. Multivariate analysis showed that
EVI1<0.10% was an independent adverse prognostic factor for
RFS and OS. TARGET data showed that low EVI1 expression tended to be
related to a lower 5-year OS rate (P=0.066). Conclusions: Low EVI1
expression at diagnosis may predict poor outcome in pediatric
Ph-negative BCP-ALL patients receiving chemotherapy.