Clinical significance of reduced SFRP1 expression in acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract

Deregulation of secreted frizzled-related protein 1 (SFRP1) has been found in many types of cancer. However, the pattern of SFRP1 expression in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is still unclear. This study determined SFRP1 expression in patients with AML. SFRP1 expression was decreased markedly in patients with AML compared to controls (p < 0.001). White blood cell (WBC) counts increased as SFRP1 expression decreased in AML (p = 0.016). Patients with low SFRP1 expression showed a different distribution of French–American–British (FAB) subtypes M1/M2/M3 from those with high SFRP1 expression (p = 0.031). NPM1 mutation was mainly observed in patients with low SFRP1 expression (p = 0.011). There was a weak trend that patients with AML with low SFRP1 expression had shorter overall survival (OS) than those with high SFRP1 expression (p = 0.103). Our results indicate that reduced SFRP1 expression is found more frequently in the less well-differentiated subgroups of AML and is associated with NPM1 mutation in AML.

Keywords::

• SFRP1
• acute myeloid leukemia
• NPM1 mutation

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81270630, 81172592), Science and Technology Special Project in Clinical Medicine of Jiangsu Province (BL2012056), 333 Project of Jiangsu Province (BRA2011085, BRA2013136), Science and Technology Infrastructure Program of Zhenjiang (SS2012003), Social Development Foundation of Zhenjiang (SH2013042, SH2013082), Research and Development Foundation of Clinical Medicine of Jiangsu University (JLY20120013, JLY20120011), Key Medical Talent Program of Zhenjiang City and Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas Studies.

Role of the funding source

Research support played no role in the study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; in the writing of the report; or in the decision to submit the report for publication.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at www.informahealthcare.com/lal.