Study of caspase-3 level in relation to prognostic risk factors in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia

ABSTRACT

Apoptosis refers to a biochemically regulated process of automated cell death mediated through a highly organized network of interacting proteases. Malignant transformation of hematopoietic progenitors into leukemic cells results in defects in the cell cycle regulation; including defects in apoptosis. Multiple mechanisms may account for why leukemic cells become resistant to chemotherapy. One common cause includes defects in the cell inherent programmed cell death [apoptosis]. This study was conduced on 20 children with newly diagnosed ALL and 10 controls. Our aim was to evaluate the level of caspase-3 among them and relate it to prognostic factors. It can be concluded that caspase-3 level after induction therapy proved to be a significant predictor of remission stage especially for B-ALL. CD10 positive cases also showed a significant difference between caspase-3 level before and after induction therapy. The same was demonstrated with low risk cases. We can also conclude that failure of caspase-3 level to increase after induction is associated with poor prognosis