High PRDM16 expression predicts poor outcomes in adult acute myeloid leukemia patients with intermediate cytogenetic risk: a comprehensive cohort study from a single Chinese center

Abstract

Acute myeloid leukemia with intermediate cytogenetic risk (ICR-AML) needs to be stratified and abnormal gene expression might be prognostic. PR/SET domain 16 (PRDM16) transcript levels were assessed in 267 consecutive adult ICR-AML patients at diagnosis by real-time quantitative PCR. 38.2% patients had PRDM16 transcript levels higher than the upper limit of normal bone marrow samples. Through ROC curve analysis and comparison of relapse-free survival (RFS), the optimal cutoff value of PRDM16 transcript levels was identified to group patients into high expression (PRDM16-H, 21.3%) and low expression (PRDM16-L). PRDM16-H was significantly associated with lower 4-year RFS and overall survival (OS) rates in the entire cohort, patients with normal karyotypes, FLT3-ITD (-) and NPM1 mutation (+)/FLT3-ITD (–) patients (all p < .05). Multivariate analysis showed that PRDM16-H was an independent adverse prognostic factor for RFS and OS in the entire cohort. Therefore, high PRDM16 expression at diagnosis predicts poor outcomes in adult ICR-AML patients.

Keywords:

• PRDM16 expression
• acute myeloid leukemia
• intermediate cytogenetic risk
• adult
• relapse-free survival

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (81870125 and 81770161) and Peking University People’s Hospital Research and Development Funds (RDX2018-01).