Multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction for simultaneous screening of 29 chromosomal translocation in hematologic malignancies.

Multiplex reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (M-RT-PCR) has been proved to possess great clinical potential for simultaneous screening of 29 chromosomal translocations in acute leukemia. To evaluate the clinical value of M-RT-PCR in hematologic malignancies, bone marrow samples from 90 patients with various hematologic malignancies, including 25 acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), 22 acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), 27 chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), 4 myeloproliferative diseases (MPD), 3 chronic lymphoblastic leukemia (CLL), 3 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), 3 myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), 2 multiple myeloma (MM) and 1 malignant histiocytosis (MH) were subjected to both M-RT-PCR and chromosome karyotypic analysis. Some of cases were subjected to follow-up examination of M-RT-PCR during the period of clinical complete remission (CR) for detection of minimal residual leukemia. In our hand, 12 of 29 chromosomal translocation transcripts including TEL/PDGFR, DEK/CAN, MLL/AF6, AML1/ETO, MLL/AF9, BCR/ABL, MLL/MLL, PML/RARu, TLS/ERG, E2A/HLF, EVI1 and HOXI1 were detected in 57 cases (63.3 %) of the 90 samples, which were in consistency with the results of karyotypic analysis. Furthermore, M-RT-PCR had also shown good clinical relevance when used as an approach to detect minimal residual leukemia. We concluded that M-RT-PCR could be used as an efficient and fast diagnostic tool not only in the initial diagnosis of hematologic malignancies but also in subsequent monitor of minimal residual leukemia.