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The aim of the present study was to investigate different biological prognostic markers to identify high-risk patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) with a higher tumor burden, in order to ensure appropriate management. A total of 81 Egyptian patients with CLL were enrolled in the present study, with 75 healthy subjects serving as the control group. The expression of CD49d, CD38 and ZAP-70 in CLL cells was assessed using flow cytometry. The fluorescence in situ hybridization technique was employed to evaluate TP53 (del17p), ataxia-telangiectasia (del11q) and 13q14 (del13q14) genes and the presence of trisomy 12. The serological markers β2 microglobulin (B2M) and sCD23 were measured by ELISA. The CD49d gene was highly expressed in 25.9% and cytogenetic aberrations were observed in 66.6% of all recruited CLL patients. The patients were categorized according to the Binet staging system and a significant increase in the expression of sCD23, CD49d and ZAP-70 was detected in group C (P=0.008, 0.034 and 0.017, respectively) when compared to groups A and B. CD49d+ patients exhibited significantly higher expression of CD38 (P=0.002) and trisomy 12 (P=0.015) and lower expression of del13q14 (P=0.001). Patients who were CD49d+ with B2M>3.5 µg/ml exhibited higher total leukocyte count (P=0.048), higher absolute lymphocyte count (P=0.036), higher expression of CD38 (P=0.002) and trisomy 12 (P=0.034) and lower expression of del13q14 (P=0.002). Therefore, sCD23, CD49d and ZAP-70 may be considered as an optimal prognostic marker combination to be evaluated in the early stages of CLL and throughout disease management. Integrating both serological markers and CD49d expression by flow cytometry may add to the prognostic value of each marker alone and help identify high-risk patients with a higher tumor burden. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Breast cancer is one of the most widespread cancers affecting women all over the world. In Egypt, it is considered to be the first cause of malignancies among female. BRCA1 Large Genomic Rearrangements (LGRs) have been reported in hereditary breast families and occurs in considerable proportion of cases in various populations., Objective and Methods: We investigated the incidence of BRCA1 LGRs in group of Egyptian females with breast cancer using Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification (MLPA) assay., Results: Thirty six female breast cancer patients were included in this study. There were no BRCA1 LGRs detected in the studied group of patients which does not coincide with other study that were done on a group of Egyptian female patients., Discussion and Conclusion: This variance may be due to the small number of the investigated patients in both studies, which is considered as a limitation. So, screening for LGRs of BRCA1 gene as well as other genes that may be involved in breast cancer such as BRCA2 and CHEK2 genes of a larger number of patients is recommended to get the actual prevalence of these gene in the Egyptian population to deliver a cost-effective primary approach for these patients.