Clinical significance of cytogenetic changes in childhood T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia: results of the multicenter group Moscow–Berlin (MB)

Abstract

The prognostic significance of genetic lesions in T-cell ALL still needs to be elucidated. Karyotyping and FISH were performed in samples from 120 patients with T-cell ALL registered in the trial Moscow–Berlin 2008. Most frequent rearrangements were TLX3 (N = 29; 24%) and TAL1 (N = 18; 15%), followed by KMT2A (N = 6; 5%), TLX1 (N = 5; 4.2%), and 11p13-15 (N = 5; 4.2%). In 16.7% of patients, the karyotype was normal, and in 30.8% ‘other’ aberrations were seen. Patients with a normal karyotype, TAL1, or KMT2A rearrangements had the most favorable outcome (probability of event free survival (pEFS): 82% ± 6%), while prognosis for patients with TLX3 and TLX1 rearrangements and ‘other’ aberrations was less favorable (pEFS: 62% ± 6%). Worst outcome was observed for five patients with 11p rearrangements (pEFS: 20% ± 18%). In summary, three subgroups of patients with T-cell ALL with significantly different outcomes could be defined by cytogenetic profiling.

Keywords:

• T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia
• pediatric
• FISH
• prognosis

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the ‘Podari Zhizn’ foundation for continued support of diagnostics and research in the field of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Potential conflict of interest

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article online at https://doi.org/10.1080/10428194.2018.1485904.

Additional information

Funding

The clinical trial ALL MB 2008 was supported by the charity organization ‘Kontakty-Kontakte e.V.’ (Project title ‘Kinderleukämie’), Berlin, Germany.