Abstract
Background: Precursor B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most common cancer in children and overall, has an excellent prognosis. However, the Philadelphia chromosome translocation (Ph+), t(9;22)(q34;q11), is present in a small subset of patients and confers poor outcomes. CD25 (IL-2 receptor alpha chain) expression has been associated with Ph+ B-ALL in adults, but no similar study has been performed in pediatric B-ALL. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 221 consecutive pediatric patients with a diagnosis of B-ALL (blood and/or bone marrow) from 2009 to 2012 was performed to determine an association between Ph+ B-ALL and CD25 expression. A threshold of 25% was used to define positive cases for CD25 expression by flow cytometry. Results: There were 221 patients with a diagnosis of B-ALL ranging from 2 to 22 years (median, 6 years). Eight (3.6%) B-ALL patients were positive for the Philadelphia chromosome translocation (Ph+ B-ALL) and 213 were negative (Ph-negative B-ALL). CD25 expression was observed in 6 of 8 (75%) Ph+ B-ALL patients and 6 of 213 (2.8%) Ph-negative B-ALL patients. CD25 expression was significantly higher in Ph+ B-ALL compared to Ph-negative B-ALL, with median CD25 expression of 64% (range 0-93%) and 0.1% (range 0-91%), respectively (P = 0.0002). Therefore, CD25 expression as a predictor of Ph+ B-ALL had 75% sensitivity, 97% specificity, 50% positive predictive value and 99% negative predictive value. Conclusions: CD25 expression is a specific and relatively sensitive marker for the identification of Ph+ B-ALL in the pediatric population.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 6225-6230 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | International Journal of Clinical and Experimental Pathology |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 9 |
State | Published - 2014 |
Keywords
- B acute lymphoblastic leukemia
- B-ALL
- BCR-ABL
- CD25
- Flow cytometry
- Pediatric
- Ph+
- Ph+ B-ALL
- Philadelphia chromosome
- t(9;22)
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine
- Histology