Abstract
Polymerase chain reaction-based screening of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) samples showed that a TEL/AML1 fusion transcript was detected in 27% of all cases, representing the most common known gene rearrangement in childhood cancer. The TEL/AML1 fusion results from a t(12;21)(p13;q22) chromosomal translocation, but was undetectable at the routine cytogenetic level. TEL/AML1-positive patients had exclusively B- lineage ALL, and most patients were between the ages of 2 and 9 years at diagnosis. Only 3/89 (3.4%) adult ALL patients were TEL/AML1-positive. Most importantly, TEL/AML1-positive children had a significantly lower rate of relapse compared with TEL/AML1-negative patients (6/22 v 16/54, P = .004). Co-immunoprecipitation experiments demonstrated that TEL/AML-1 formed homodimers in vitro, and heterodimerized with the normal TEL protein when the two proteins were expressed together. The elucidation of the precise mechanism of transformation by TEL/AML1 and the role of TEL/AML1 testing in the treatment of childhood ALL will require additional studies.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 4252-4258 |
| Number of pages | 7 |
| Journal | Blood |
| Volume | 88 |
| Issue number | 11 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Dec 1996 |