FMS-like tyrosine kinase 3 gene mutations in acute myeloid leukemia.pdf

Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention, Vol 11, 2010 923 Fms-Like Tyrosine Kinase 3 Mutations in Childhood Acute Leukemias and their Association with Prognosis Asian Pacific J Cancer Prev, 11, 923-927 Introduction The fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) gene belong to the class III receptor tyrosine kinases and is predominantly expressed on hematopoietic progenitor cells in the bone marrow, thymus, and lymph nodes (Peng et al., 2008). FLT3 receptor, which has an important role in pathogenesis of leukemia, is expressed in different levels in the cells due to the type of acute leukemias. For example, high level FLT3 expression was demonstrated in 30% of the patients with T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and in 70-100% of the patients with acute myeloblastic leukemia (AML) and with B-ALL (Birg et al., 1992; Carrow et al., 1996; Stacchini et al., 1996). Internal tandem duplication (ITD) and trans kinase domain (TKD) mutations from FLT3 mutations lead to ligand-independent autophosphorylation of FLT3 receptor and consequently tyrosine kinase activation. As a result of this, the pathways related to proliferation, differentiation and survey are activated and resistance to apoptosis occurs. In recent years, FLT3 has been a subject of several studies as prognostic marker. The studies conducted with both pediatric and adult patients reported that FLT3 mutations were associated with high risk of relapse and poor prognosis in AML patients. We investigated in 1Cukurova University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatric Oncology Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantaion Unit, 2Department of Pediatric Hematology, Adana, Turkey *For correspondence: erbeyfa@ Abstract Introduction: In recent years, Fms-like tyrosin kinase (FLT) 3 has been the subject of several studies as a prognostic marker. Objective: In this study, the presence of FLT3 mutations in childhood acute leukemias patients and their association with prognosis were investigated. Material