Multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for simultaneous screening of 29 chromosomal translocation in hematologic malignancies

Abstract

Multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (M-RT-PCR) has been proved to possess great clinical potential for simultaneous screening of 29 chromosomal translocations in acute leukemia. To evaluate the clinical value of M-RT-PCR in hematologic malignancies, bone marrow samples from 90 patients with various hematologic malignancies, including 25 acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), 22 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 27 chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), 4 myeloproliferative diseases (MPD), 3 chronic lymphoblastic leukemia (CLL), 3 non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), 3 myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), 2 multiple myeloma (MM) and 1 malignant histocytosis (MH) were subjected to both M-RT-PCR and chromosome karyotypic analysis. Some of cases were subjected to follow-up examination of M-RT-PCR during the period of clinical complete remission (CR) for detection of minimal residual leukemia. In our hand, 12 of 29 chromosomal translocation transcripts including TEL/PDGFR, DEK/CAN, MLL/AF6, AML1/ETO, MLL/AF9, BCR/ABL, MLL/MLL, PML/RARα, TLS/ERG, E2A/HLF, EVI1 and HOXI1 were detected in 57 cases (63.3 %) of the 90 samples, which were in consistence with the results of karyotypic analysis. Furthermore, M-RT-PCR had also shown good clinical relevance when used as an approach to detect minimal residual leukemia. We concluded that M-RT-PCR could be used as an efficient and fast diagnostic tool not only in the initial diagnosis of hematologic malignancies but also in subsequent monitor of minimal residual leukemia.

Keywords

hematologic malignancies / multiplex RT-PCR / cytogenetic analysis

References

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