ABSTRACT
Acute myeloid leukemia [AML] comprises a heterogenic group of malignant disorders involving cell maturation arrest at an undifferentiated stage in bone marrow. Activation of N-RAS proto-oncogene due to point mutations plays a major role in AML malignancy. Since there was no report on the frequency of N-RAS gene mutations in Iranian AML patients, therefore, we decided to determine its frequency and compare the results with age, sex and FAB subtypes. In this descriptive study, 60 de novo AML patients from Tehran Shariati hospital, hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation center were screened for the mutations of N-RAS gene at codons 12, 13 and 61. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood samples before the start of chemotherapy. The above mentioned codons were amplified by PCR and analyzed by restriction endnuclease enzymes. We were able to detect mutations in 12 out of 60 [20%] patients. Most of the mutations were detected in men with an age over 40 years old. The frequency of mutations for codons 12, 13 and 61 were 15%, 11.6% and 5% respectively. Most of the mutations [33.3%] were found to happen in AML-M4 FAB subtype. We could not detect any mutation in AML-MO, M6 and M7. We detected mutations in 20% of our AML patients. In general, the frequency of the mutations we found was in agreement with the results of other studies. However, a study with more patients and a wider range of age using a combination of PCR-RFLP and direct gene sequencing is highly recommended