Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Dept. of Immunology, Medical Sciences / University of Tehran

2 Clinic of Hematology, Iran University of Medical Sciences

3 Clinic of Hematology and Oncology, Medical Sciences / University of Tehran

4 Cancer Center Karolinska, Karolinska Inst, Stockholm, Sweden

5 Monoclonal Antibody Research Center, Avesina Research Inst, Tehran

6 Dept. of Immunology, Reproductive Biotechnology Research Center, Avesina Research Inst

7 National Cell Bank of Iran, Pasteur Inst of Iran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Background: Immunophenotypic characterization of the leukemic cells has been widely used as a tool for diagnosis, classification, stratification and prognosis of leukaemia.
Objective: To investigate the immunophenotypic subtype profiles of Iranian patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and its association to disease outcome.
Methods: In this study, a total of 60 Iranian patients with ALL were immunophenotyped by flow cytometry using a panel of monoclonal antibodies specific for CD2, CD3, CD5, CD10, CD13, CD14, CD19, CD20, CD33, CD34, CD45, HLA-DR and TdT molecules.
Results: The samples were initially categorized into T-ALL (n=9), B-ALL (n=50) and mixed lineage (n=1) based on the expression patterns of CD3 and CD19 molecules. B-ALL patients could further be classified into four subtypes, including Pro-B (n=7, 11.7%), Pre-B I (n=28, 46.7%), Pre-B II (n=13, 21.7%) and immature/mature B cells (n=2, 3.3%) on the basis of expression of CD10, CD19, CD20, HLA-DR and TdT. Clinical manifestations and laboratory findings of the patients did not reveal association with immunophenotypic sub-types of ALL, with the exception of mediastinal mass and WBC count at the time of diag-nosis which were found to be significantly higher in patients with T-ALL compared with B-ALL (p=0.001 and 0.014), respectively.
Conclusion: Our results indicate that overall the immunophenotypic profile of Iranian ALL patients is similar to previous reports and it might be used for monitoring of minimal residual disease and prognosis.

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