Risk factors of hematological malignancies in Upper Egypt: a case–control study

Overexpression of cancerous inhibitor of PP2A (CIP2A) in acute myeloid leukemia

BACKGROUND

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous hematologic malignancy. Protein phosphatase 2A Protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A) is a major serine/threonine phosphatase and tumor suppressor that negatively regulates numerous signal transduction pathways. Cancerous inhibitor of PP2A (CIP2A) is an endogenous inhibitor of PP2A. CIP2A overexpression was shown to be a recurrent event in cytogenetic normal AML patients. The aim of the study is to evaluate the prognostic significance of CIP2A overexpression in patients with AML.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS

The study included 174 newly diagnosed cytogenetic normal AML patients. Detection of CIP2A expression was performed using quantitative real-time PCR.

RESULTS

CIP2A was overexpressed in 125/174 (71.8%) of patients. Correlation of CIP2A overexpression with other prognostic factors showed significant association with CD34 expression (p=0.04). CIP2A overexpression was significantly associated with a lower rate of (complete remission) CR (p=0.019) and shorter disease free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) (p<0.001 and <0.001, respectively). In multivariate analysis, CIP2A overexpression was an independent adverse prognostic factor that negatively affected DFS and OS (p<0.001, HR:2.8,95%CI:1.7-4.7 and p=0.002, HR:1.8; 95%CI:1.2-2.65, respectively).

CONCLUSION

CIP2A overexpression is a useful prognostic marker in AML.

Evaluation of MLPA as a comprehensive molecular cytogenetic tool to detect cytogenetic markers of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in Egyptian patients

Background

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of adult leukemia. This disease is genetically heterogeneous, and approximately 85% of patients with CLL harbor chromosomal aberrations that are considered effective prognostic biomarkers. The most frequent aberrations include deletions in 13q14, followed by trisomy 12, and deletions in 11q22.3 and 17p13 (TP53). Currently, fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) is the most widely used molecular cytogenetic technique to detect these aberrations. However, FISH is laborious, time-consuming, expensive, and has a low throughput. In contrast, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (MLPA) is a reliable, cost-effective, and relatively rapid technique that can be used as a first-line screening tool and complement with FISH analysis. This study aimed to evaluate the contributions of MLPA as a routine standalone screening platform for recurrent chromosomal aberrations in CLL in comparison to other procedures. Thirty patients with CLL were screened for the most common genomic aberrations using MLPA with SALSA MLPA probemix P038-B1 CLL and FISH.

Results

In 24 of the 30 cases (80%), the MLPA and FISH results were concordant. Discordant results were attributed to a low percentage of mosaicism. Moreover, the MLPA probemix contains probes that target other genomic areas known to be linked to CLL in addition to those targeting common recurrent CLL aberrations.

Conclusions

The usage of MLPA as the first screening platform followed by FISH technique for only the negative cases is the most appropriate approach for CLL diagnosis and prognosis.

Maternal ancestry and hematological cancer risk: case-control study in an Argentinean population

Aim: We investigated the role of maternal ancestry in neoplastic hematological malignancies (HMs) risk in a population from Central Argentina. Materials & methods: We analyzed 125 cases with HMs and 310 controls from a public hospital, and a set of 202 colorectal, breast, lung, and hematologic cancer patients from a private hospital. Results: A decreased risk for HMs was associated with the Native American haplogroup B2 (odds ratio = 0.49; 95% CI: 0.25-0.92; p = 0.02). The sub-Saharan African parahaplogroup L was associated with higher susceptibility for disease (odds ratio = 3.10; 95% CI: 1.04-9.31; p = 0.043). Although the mean ancestral proportions in the total studied population was as published (61.7% Native American, 34.6% European and 3.7% African), an unequal distribution was observed between hospitals. Conclusion: We confirmed the tri-hybrid nature of the Argentinean population, with proportions varying within the country. Our finding supports the notion that associated haplogroup is population and cancer specific.