1. Genetic evaluation of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in Iraq using FTA cards.
- Author
-
Al-Kzayer LF, Sakashita K, Matsuda K, Al-Hadad SA, Al-Jadiry MF, Abed WM, Abdulkadhim JM, Al-Shujairi TA, Hasan JG, Al-Abdullah HM, Al-Ani MH, Saber PA, Inoshita T, Kamata M, and Koike K
- Subjects
- Child, Child, Preschool, Core Binding Factor Alpha 2 Subunit analysis, Female, Fusion Proteins, bcr-abl analysis, Homeodomain Proteins analysis, Humans, Infant, Iraq, Male, Myeloid-Lymphoid Leukemia Protein analysis, Oncogene Proteins, Fusion analysis, Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma diagnosis, RNA, Messenger, Translocation, Genetic, Precursor Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-Lymphoma genetics
- Abstract
Background: Genetic examination of childhood leukemia has not been available in Iraq. We here report the frequency of TEL-AML1, E2A-PBX1, MLL-AF4, and BCR-ABL chimeric transcripts in 264 Iraqi children newly diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), using FTA cards impregnated with bone marrow aspirate or whole blood., Patients and Methods: The diagnosis of ALL was made according to standard French-American-British morphologic criteria. Based on the results of storage temperature and duration, most of the FTA samples were preserved at 4°C for up to 6 weeks in five Iraqi hospitals and then transferred to Japan for molecular analysis. Nested reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was adopted for the analysis., Results: TEL-AML1 chimeric transcript product was found in 32 (12.1%) of 264 ALL patients. Eleven (4.2%) patients, 4 (1.5%) patients, and 11 (4.2%) patients had E2A-PBX1 mRNA, MLL-AF4 mRNA, and BCR-ABL mRNA, respectively. One patient had both TEL-AML1 and E2A-PBX1 fusion genes. The incidence of TEL-AML1 in Iraqi ALL children appears to be similar to or slightly higher than those of Jordan (12%) and Kuwait (7%). The prevalence and clinical findings of ALL patients with either E2A-PBX1 or BCR-ABL were comparable to the data reported elsewhere., Conclusion: International collaboration via FTA cards may be helpful to improve diagnosis and management of patients with hematological malignancies in low-income and underdeveloped countries., (Copyright © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)
- Published
- 2012
- Full Text
- View/download PDF