Significance of Th1/Th2 cytokines in prognostic stratification of acute myeloid leukemia / 白血病·淋巴瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective:To investigate the significance of Th1/Th2 cytokines in prognostic stratification of acute myeloid leukemia (AML).Methods:A total of 83 patients with newly diagnosed AML from June 2017 to April 2019 in the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province were collected. According to the Chinese guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of adult acute myeloid leukemia (non-acute promyelocytic leukemia) (2017 edition), AML patients were divided into poor prognosis group (45 cases), moderate prognosis group (19 cases), and good prognosis group (19 cases); moderate prognosis plus poor prognosis was treated as the not good prognosis. Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis H test were used to compare the expression differences of Th1/Th2 cytokines in peripheral blood of different prognosis groups; cytokines with statistical differences among different prognosis groups were selected, and the cut-off value of AML patients with different prognostic stratification distinguished by cytokines was determined by using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve. Finally, patients were divided into ≥ cut-off value group and <cut-off value group according to the cut-off value, and then the association of both groups with the prognostic stratification in guideline was also analyzed. Results:The median expression level of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-β of patients in moderate prognosis group [3.80 pg/ml (2.75 pg/ml, 15.32 pg/ml)] was higher than that of patients in poor prognosis group [2.78 pg/ml (1.28 pg/ml, 3.36 pg/ml)] and good prognosis group [1.61 pg/ml (0.83 pg/ml, 3.04 pg/ml)] ( U=216, P=0.02; U = 312, P < 0.05); the median expression level of TNF-β in good prognosis group was lower than that in poor prognosis group ( U = 562, P = 0.048). There were no statistically significant differences in the expression levels of Th1/Th2 cytokines of AML patients with different prognostic stratification (all P>0.05).The cut-off value of TNF-β was 3.23 pg/ml in good prognosis group and moderate prognosis group, the area under the ROC curve was 0.866 (95% CI 0.753-0.978, P < 0.05); among 26 patients with TNF-β≥ 3.23 pg/ml, 25 (96.2%) patients had not good prognosis. The cut-off value was 3.62 pg/ml for distinguishing between moderate prognosis group and poor prognosis group, the area under the ROC curve was 0.747 (95% CI 0.610-0.884, P = 0.02); 18 (100%) patients with TNF-β≥ 3.62 pg/ml had not good prognosis. The cut-off value was 2.19 pg/ml for distinguishing between good prognosis group and not good prognosis group, the area under the ROC curve was 0.719 (95% CI 0.595-0.842, P = 0.04); among 53 patients with TNF-β≥2.19 pg/ml, 46 (86.8%) patients had not good prognosis. Conclusions:The high expression of TNF-β may indicate that the prognosis of AML patients is not good. When the level of TNF-β was equal or greater than 3.62 pg/ml, it may contribute to the prognostic stratification of AML patients.