Spontaneous apoptosis and proliferation detected by BCL-2 and CD71 proteins are important progression indicators within ZAP-70 negative chronic lymphocytic leukemia

  • Giovanni Del Poeta*
  • , Maria Ilaria Del Principe
  • , Luca Maurillo
  • , Francesca Maria Rossi
  • , Francesco Buccisano
  • , Emanuele Ammatuna
  • , Cristina Simotti
  • , Antonella Zucchetto
  • , Gianfranco Catalano
  • , Pietro Bulian
  • , Antonio Bruno
  • , Adriano Venditti
  • , Paolo De Fabritiis
  • , Valter Gattei
  • , Sergio Amadori
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

17 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), inhibition of spontaneous apoptosis determines a worse prognosis and increasing evidences show that disease progression relies also upon cycling CLL cells. We investigated bcl-2, as measure of apoptosis, and CD71, as measure of proliferation, by flow cytometry in 265 patients with CLL. Combining bcl-2 with CD71 values, we defined three subgroups: (1) bcl2-CD717; (2) bcl2+CD71+; and (3) bcl2+CD717 - or bcl2-CD71+. Both a shorter progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were observed in ZAP-70+ (p<.00001) and in patients with bcl2+CD71+ (p<.00001 and p=0.02). The patients with discordant in bcl2+CD717 and bcl2-CD71+ showed an intermediate outcome. Noteworthy, patients with bcl2+CD71+ showed a shorter PFS within ZAP-70 negative subgroup (p=0.00009). In multivariate analysis of PFS, age (p=0.005), beta-2 microglobulin (B2 -M) (p=0.003), bcl-2 (p=0.004), CD49d (p=0.001), and ZAP-70 (p<.001) resulted to be significant prognostic factors. The independent prognostic significance of B2 -M (p=0.009) and bcl-2 (p=0.03) was confirmed within ZAP-70 negative patients. Bcl-2 and CD71 can be considered as interesting progression indicators, which should be validated in an independent cohort of patients, to take timely therapeutic decisions in CLL.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)95-106
Number of pages12
JournalLeukemia and Lymphoma
Volume51
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan-2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Bcl-2
  • CD71
  • CLL
  • Flow cytometry
  • Prognostic factors
  • ZAP-70

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