Prognostic value of inhibitor of apoptosis protein family expression in patients with acute myeloid leukemia

Abstract

The inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) family acts as an inhibitor of apoptosis pathways. The potential prognostic value of the expression of selected IAP family members, XIAP, cIAP-1, cIAP-2 and survivin protein, was evaluated with regard to treatment response and survival of 56 newly diagnosed adult patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The presence of these IAP members influenced the achievement of a complete response (CR). In addition, overall survival (OS) was influenced by low survivin expression in univariate and multivariate analysis (p = 0.014 and p = 0.013, respectively). A strong correlation was observed between members of the IAP family (XIAP and cIAP-1, XIAP and cIAP-2, cIAP-1 and cIAP-2, p < 0.001 for all comparisons), while Smac/DIABLO demonstrated an inverse correlation with XIAP, cIAP-1 and cIAP-2 (p < 0.001 for all comparisons). Further studies should be undertaken to better demonstrate the mode of action of IAP members, as well as their prognostic and therapeutic potentials.

Keywords::

• Acute myeloid leukemia
• apoptosis
• IAP
• prognosis

Acknowledgements

The preliminary results of this study were presented at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology, Orlando, Florida, 4–7 December 2010.

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 work was supported in part by a grant from the State Committee for Scientific Research (KBN) (No. 4374/B/P01/ 2010/39) and in part from the Medical University of Lodz (No. 503-1093-1 and No. 502-03/8-093-01/502-64-056).