Low expression level of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten predicts poor prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Abstract

Phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome ten (PTEN) is one of the best-studied tumor suppressor genes which can promote cell proliferation and contribute to tumorigenesis. This study aimed to investigate the PTEN mRNA (Pm) expression level in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and healthy controls, and its correlation with prognostic factors. Quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) was used to detect Pm expression. Compared to controls, patients with CLL presented a lower expression level of Pm (p < 0.001). In univariate analysis, the expression level of Pm was significantly decreased in patients with Binet C (p < 0.001) and higher level of β₂-microglobulin (β₂-MG) (p = 0.036), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (p = 0.019) and ZAP-70 (p = 0.008). Higher Pm expression level was found in favorable cytogenetic aberrations (p = 0.016) and the group without p53 aberration (p = 0.005). Multivariate analysis showed that advanced Binet stage (p = 0.027) and p53 aberration (p = 0.007) were associated with a low PTEN expression level. Survival analysis showed that low expression of PTEN was associated with shorter time to first treatment (TTFT) (p = 0.040). These results indicate that PTEN might be a new prognostic marker in patients with CLL.

Keywords::

• Chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• PTEN
• prognosis

Potential conflict of interest:

Disclosure forms provided by the authors are available with the full text of this article at www.informahealthcare.com/lal. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (30971296, 81170485, 81170488, 81200360), Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province (BK2010584, BK2012484), Key Projects of the Health Department of Jiangsu Province (K201108), Jiangsu Province's Medical Elite Program (RC2011169), University Doctoral Foundation of the Ministry of Education of China (20093234110010), Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institute (JX10231801) and National Public Health Grand Research Foundation (201202017).