Researchers from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Mass., and the University "La Sapienza" in Rome studied 33 patients that had all been recently diagnosed with adult T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia (T-ALL), a type of cancer in which the body makes too many T lymphocytes.

"The present study investigates, for the first time, the identification of gene expression profiles associated with both short-term and long-term outcome in adult patients with T-ALL. While approximately 70 percent of pediatric patients with T-ALL have excellent long-term response to intensive chemotherapy, adult patients have a much less favorable outcome. Previously, this poor prognosis of adult T-ALL patients had not been attributed to specific genetic signatures," according to Jerome Ritz, M.D., of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, co-senior author of the study. Robin Foa, M.D., from the University "La Sapienza," also served as senior author.

Using microarray technology, a technique that can evaluate the expression of thousands of genes at once, researchers were able to compare the gene expression profiles of the patients who responded to chemotherapy to those who did not. Through gene expression profiling a determination of which genes in a cell or group of cells are active the scientists identified a single gene, IL-8, that was highly expressed in T-ALL cells that were resistant to treatment. Researchers also discovered a set of 30 genes that were highly expressed in leukemic cells from patients who achieved complete remission.

A model based on the expression of three genes AHNAK, TTK, and CD2 was also found to be highly predictive of the duration of rem
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Contact: Aislinn Raedy
araedy@hematology.org
202-776-0544
American Society of Hematology
19-Mar-2004