Kegg Pathway: Chronic myeloid leukemia

Cancer Lett. 2008 Jul 15;
Albajar M, Gutierrez P, Richard C, Rosa-Garrido M, Gómez-Casares MT, Steegmann JL, León J, Delgado MD

The PU.1 transcription factor is a crucial regulator of hematopoiesis which expression is altered in various leukemic processes. Our previous work in Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) cells demonstrated that interferon-alpha upregulated PU.1 expression. Here we show that expression of PU.1 is severely impaired in patients with CML at diagnosis. However, the PU.1 suppression is abrogated in patients in remission, after interferon-alpha or imatinib treatment. These effects are not found in patients with other myeloproliferative diseases such as polycythemia vera or essential thrombocythemia. PU.1 could, therefore, be used as an additional marker of the response to the treatment of the CML.

Ann Hematol. 2008 Jul 17;
Björkholm M, Ohm L, Stenke L

J Formos Med Assoc. 2008 Jul; 107(7): 513-8
Tsai LY, Tung JN, Liu TZ

Background/Purpose: Accumulating literature has documented that there exists a distinct difference in nitro blue tetrazolium reduction capacity by the polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMNs) from patients with different types of leukemia. The underlying mechanism associated with this observed phenomenon remains to be clarified. Methods: The production of O2-, monitored by a validated probe (lucigenin)-based ultraweak chemiluminescence, in resting and/or phorbol-1,2-myristate-1,3-acetate (PMA)- and zymosan-stimulated systems of various leukemic PMNs was measured. In parallel with these studies, we also quantified superoxide dismutase isozymes (Cu, Zn-SOD, Mn-SOD) from these isolated PMNs by established methods. Results: A marked increase was observed in O2- generation by the PMNs from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but not from patients with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) when compared with controls either in the resting condition or after being stimulated by either PMA or zymosan. In parallel, we also quantified SOD isozyme activities and found that the total and CuZn-SOD of PMNs from AML were indeed significantly lower than either controls or ALL, implying that higher levels of O2- generation might result from a deficiency in this O2- metabolizing enzyme. Conclusion: Our data suggest that a distinct difference in the capability of O2- generation under stimulated conditions between PMNs from ALL and AML (or CML) may be of potential taxonomic or even therapeutic usefulness.

Cancer Detect Prev. 2008 Jul 14;
Karimi M, Mehrabani D, Yarmohammadi H, Jahromi FS

Background: leukemia and lymphomas are still the common childhood cancers in Iran. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of signs and symptoms of these malignancies in children of Fars Province, Southern Iran. Methods: A total of 368 cases of children who were less than 15 years old and diagnosed as acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL, n=211), acute myeloid leukemia (AML, n=64), Burkitt lymphoma (BL, n=40), Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML, n=5), Hodgkin's disease (HD, n=33) or non-Burkitt-type, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NBNHL, n=15) referring to the hospitals of Shiraz University of Medical Sciences from April 1997 to March 2002 were enrolled. A questionnaire was provided to record the age, median age at the onset of the disease, sex, type of malignancy and the signs and symptoms at the time of presentation. Results: The common sign or symptoms were fever (74%), in ALL, AML, NHL, and BL patients, hepatosplenomegaly (100%) in CML patients, and lymphadenopathy (54%) and fever (54%) in Hodgkin's disease. Conclusion: Knowledge of signs and symptoms and types of presentations of childhood leukemia and lymphoma may help a physician to improve the patient's outcome. This study revealed that attention to uncommon signs and symptoms in history taking and physical examination together with laboratory tests may increase the physicians' awareness and better diagnosis of pediatric malignancies and would also be beneficial for the patient.