Immunophenotypic, cytogenetic, and clinical features of 207 cases of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia in china.

OBJECTIVE

In this study, we investigated the immunophenotypic subtype profiles of 207 Chinese children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and its association with cytogenetics and clinical features.

METHODS

A total of 207 children with ALL were immunophenotyped by 4-color flow cytometry using a panel of monoclonal antibodies. Among the 207 patients enrolled in this study, 146 cases were also subjected to karyotype analysis by R-banding technology.

RESULTS

Of the 207 children with ALL, 11.6% were identified as T-ALL and 88.4% as B-ALL. Among B-ALL, 6.6% were identified as Pro-B ALL, 67.2% as Com-B ALL, 24.0% as Pre-B ALL, and 2.2% as mature-B ALL. Myeloid antigen (MyAg) expression was documented in 42.5% of the 207 cases analyzed and CD13 was the most commonly expressed MyAg (31.4%). No difference was observed in the expression of MyAg between the groups of patients with T-ALL (41.7%) and B-ALL (42.6%). Abnormal karyotypes were detected in 84 of 146 (57.5%) children. The clinical and biological characteristics of ALL patients between the MyAg⁺ and MyAg⁻ groups showed that a higher percentage of patients with high WBC count (>50×10⁹/L) and higher CD34 positivity were found to be correlated with MyAg⁺ ALL.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results indicate that the distribution of ALL in Chinese children was similar to the general distribution pattern in other countries. Unlike previous studies, we found that the expression of MyAg in children with T-ALL and B-ALL was comparable, and the percentage of patients with a high WBC count (>50×10⁹/L) and CD34 positivity in MyAg⁺ was higher than that in MyAg⁻ ALL types, but no differences were found with regard to other clinical features.