Analysis of relationship between bcr-abl transcription level detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction and clinical status of CML patients / 中国实验血液学杂志

ABSTRACT

This study was aimed to investigate the bcr-abl transcription level and its relationship with the clinical status of patients so as to provide some bases for predicting patient status according to absolute value of bcr-abl transcript. The bcr-abl/abl values (%) of bone marrow samples from 30 newly diagnosed CML patients at the baseline bcr-abl/abl value obtained in CML patients with bcr-abl positive were defined, then 161 bone marrow samples from 82 patients were detected at virions time points, and the bcr-abl/abl value of each sample was compared with baseline value and its relationship with clinical status of patient at same time point was investigated. The results showed that bcr-abl/abl values (%) of 30 patients showed positive skew distribution and a large variation with mean 13.5631 (1.0206 - 98.3159) and mathematical mean of 21.1491 (95% CI 12.3532 - 29.9450). For strict standard, the baseline value of bcr-abl/abl (%) was set as 1, the lower limit of these values. In the detected results of 161 samples, there were 33 samples' values above the baseline value, in which resistance/relapse/progression (R/R/P) 13 (39.4%, 13/33), no remission (NR) 17 (51.5%, 17/33) and complete hematologic remission (CHR) 3 (9.1%, 3/33) were observed. the values of 26 samples decreased by 0 - 1 order of magnitude (0.1 < or = bcr-abl/abl % < 1), in which R/R/P 6 (23.1%, 6/26), NR 7 (26.9%, 7/26), CHR 7 (26.9%, 7/26) and cytogenetic remission (CyR) 6 (23.1%, 6/26) were observed, the values of 19 samples decreased by 1 - 2 order of magnitude (0.01 < or = bcr-abl/abl % < 0.1), in which NR 2 (10.5%, 2/19), CHR 3 (15.8%, 3/19) and CyR 14 (73.7%, 14/19) were determined. 7 samples decreased by 2 - 3 order of magnitude (0.001 < or = bcr-abl/abl % < 0.01) in which major CyR (MCyR) 2 (28.6%, 2/7) and complete CyR (CCyR) 5 (71.4%, 5/7) were determined, the values of 76 samples decreased by 3 or more order of magnitude (bcr-abl/abl % < 0.001), and all these were CCyR. In conclusion, the using decrease degree of one time point-detected value compared to the baseline could well assess the patient clinical status. The bcr-abl/abl % < 0.01 can reliably reflect CyR obtained by patients at the time point, and bcr-abl/abl % < 0.001 can reflect CCyR obtained by patients. However, exact judgments of patient status relies on dynamic and serial monitoring.