Prevalence and prognostic significance of FLT3 gene mutations in patients with acute leukaemia: analysis of patients from the Shanghai Leukaemia Co-operative Group

J Int Med Res. 2010 Mar-Apr;38(2):432-42. doi: 10.1177/147323001003800206.

Abstract

This study was designed to evaluate the prevalence of fms-like tyrosine kinase-3 (FLT3) gene mutations in the World Health Organization classified subtypes of acute leukaemia (AL), and their prognostic significance in terms of complete remission (CR), leukaemia-free survival (LFS) and overall survival (OS). Of 468 patients, 374 (79.9%) had acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and 83 (17.7%) had acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Among the AML patients, a FLT3 internal tandem duplication (FLT3/ITD) mutation was present in 59 cases (15.8%), whereas a FLT3/D835 mutation was detected in 15 cases (4.0%). Conversely, in the ALL patients, no FLT3/ITD mutations were detected and a FLT3/D835 mutation was found in only two cases (2.4%). The FLT3/ITD mutation was associated with a lower CR rate compared with those with no mutations (52.3% versus 71.1%) and with a shorter median OS (9 versus 18 months) in AML patients. In conclusion, the FLT3/ITD mutation occurred frequently in AML and was associated with a lower CR and shorter median OS. In contrast, FLT3/D835 mutations were not of prognostic value.

MeSH terms

  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / therapeutic use
  • Biomarkers, Tumor / genetics*
  • Humans
  • Immunoenzyme Techniques
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / drug therapy
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / genetics*
  • Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute / pathology
  • Mutation / genetics*
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / drug therapy
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / genetics*
  • Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma / pathology
  • Prevalence
  • Prognosis
  • Survival Rate
  • fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3 / genetics*

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor
  • FLT3 protein, human
  • fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3