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Childhood acute leukaemias are heterogeneous group of diseases. Besides the basic classification into acute lymphoblastic leukaemias (ALL) and acute myeloid leukaemias (AML), the heterogeneity is mainly a consequence of variety of primary genetic aberrations. These aberrations result in various biological background, variable response to treatment and variable prognosis of different leukaemia subtypes. In ALL, the most common primary aberrations with a very good prognosis are hyperdiploidy and TEL/AML1 fusion gene. On the other hand, patients with BCR/ABL fusion or MLL gene rearrangements have poor prognosis. In AML, the AML1/ETO, CBFB/MYH11 and PML/RARA fusions are considered favourable. Probably the most reliable prognostic factor in ALL is an early response to treatment measured as levels of minimal residual disease (MRD) in specific time-points during therapy. The role of MRD in AML is less clear; however, its monitoring becomes a part of the standard treatment protocols recently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most frequent childhood malignancy. Treatment has been unified in the middle of 1980 in the Czech Republic. In 2002-2007 children and adolescents with acute lymphoblastic leukemia were treated in an international randomized trial ALL-IC BFM 2002 in the Czech Republic. 291 patients aged 1-18 years were enrolled; infants below 1 year entered a separate trial., Methods and Results: Patients were stratified into three risk groups according to their age, initial leukocyte count, prednisone response, presence of fusion genes BCR/ABL or MLL/AF4, bone marrow D+15 and remission status D+33. The whole therapy took 24 months. Randomized late intensification compared standard BFM therapy with extended, usually more intensive experimental treatment. The median follow-up was 8.7 years. Complete remission was achieved in 97.9% patients, 1% died in remission. 11% of children relapsed, 1.7% with CNS involvement. Six children (2.1%) developed secondary malignancy. Event free survival (EFS) 8 years from diagnosis was 83.5%, overall survival (OS) 91.4%. EFS and OS of the risk groups were: standard risk: 89.4%; 98.1%; intermediate risk: 82.6%; 89.6%; high risk: 68.8%; 78.1%. Male sex and age above 10 years were adverse prognostic factors., Conclusions: In comparison with the previous trial ALL-BFM 95, significant improvement was achieved.

Classical cytogenetic analysis plays an important role in the diagnosis, classification, therapy monitoring and prognosis of patients with leukemia. Many recurrent cytogenetic abnormalities with major prognostic values have been described in childhood ALL. Hyperdiploidy and/or t(12;21) are associated with good prognosis, whereas t(9;22) and/or rearrangements of MLL gene correlate with poor outcome and therefore early detection of these abnormalities is very important. FISH can overcome some limitations of conventional cytogenetic and molecular-genetic analyses and due to high sensitivity specific chromosomal aberrations in mitoses and/or interphase nuclei can be detected. In the Center of Oncocytogenetics of the 3rd Medical Department for assessment of hyperdiploidy and structural rearrangements we use double-color FISH with centromeric and/or locus-specific probes and complex aberrations are ascertained by whole chromosome painting probes and multicolor FISH. Among 275 children with ALL examined during the last 8 years by different FISH methods we found seven patients with translocation t(9;22) and 14 patients with MLL rearrangements in bone marrow cells. Since 1988 we focus on detection of hyperdiploidy and/or t(12;21). High hyperdiploidy was found in 35 children, 10 of them had further complex rearrangements. Translocation t(12;21) was proved in 37 patients and complex rearrangements were found in 22 of them. FISH, cytogenetic and molecular-genetic analyses become obligatory for the first diagnostic examination as well as for monitoring of treatment effect in children with ALL.

TEL and AML1 genes occur in a markedly high number of different aberrations in haematological malignancies. Besides the AML1, TEL is often fused to genes, which encod thyrosin-kinases. AML1 gene is a part of CBF transcription factor. AML1 can be altered in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) and also in a substantial number of acute myeloid leukaemias (most frequently as an AML1/ETO fusion). TEL/AML1 fusion gene (derived from t(12;21)(p13;q22) translocation) became recently one of the most important genetic aberrations in children with ALL. TEL/AML1 act presumably as dominant inhibitors of the second AML1 allele and thus they block transcription of genes dependent on CBF factor. Childhood ALL with TEL/AML1 hybrid gene is very frequent (approximately 22% of overall childhood ALL in the Czech Republic) and patients with this fusion form relatively homogenous group. These children are diagnosed mostly in pre-school age as a B cell precursor leukaemias and they have very good treatment results.

The level of minimal residual disease is an important prognostic factor in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. The end of induction therapy is the most significant time-point for prediction of treatment outcome. Within a pilot study covered by the Paediatric Haematology Working Group in the Czech Republic 51 childhood patients were analysed at diagnosis of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and at the end of induction using method based on detection of clonal rearrangements of immuno-receptor genes. The majority of tested patients (32/51, 63%) had a low or non-detectable levels of residual disease, a group of patients with the highest levels and thus the highest risk of relapse included 10% of patients (5/51). Within each of three risk groups one patient has relapsed so far. Therefore, the relapse rate in particular subgroups is 3% (1/32), 7% (1/14) and 20% (1/5) to date, respectively. The results are compared with these published by the BFM group (van Dongen et al., Lancet 1998). The pilot phase of a new BFM treatment protocols includes examination of residual disease for stratification of patients into the different risk groups.

Background: The BCR/ABL and MLL/AF4 fusion genes--resulting from t(9;22)(q34;q11) and t(4;11)(q21;q23) translocations, respectively--are considered as a high risk prognostic factors in children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL). Their presence in malignant cells indicates patient for the most intensive antileukaemic therapy regardless of the other criteria. In contrast, the most common non-random chromosomal aberration in paediatric ALL--translocation t(12;21)(q12;q22)--is associated with a favourable prognosis. The examination of these rearrangements is important for the stratification of patients to the risk groups and also provides the most sensitive and specific tool for minimal residual disease (MRD) follow-up., Methods and Results: This study comprises 241 patients with ALL from Czech and Slovak Republics younger than 18 years at diagnosis. They were examined for presence of m-RNA of fusion genes BCR/ABL, MLL/AF4 and TEL/AML1 by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method. Seven out of 197 (3.6%) carried MLL/AF4 fusion gene, but among infants it was 56% (5 out of 9). BCR/ABL positivity was found in 2.5% (7 out of 240) and TEL/AML1 in 21.7% (41 out of 189) cases. Event free survival (EFS) curves demonstrate the clinical impact of these hybrid genes on patients' prognosis. Moreover, we present the possibility of the monitoring of MRD levels in follow-up samples of these patients., Conclusions: All particular rearrangements were found only in a cohort of patients with B-precursor ALL (or hybrid leukaemia), which constitutes 85% of our group. Presence of BCR/ABL or MLL/AF4 fusion gene is associated with poor prognosis and is indispensable condition for correct stratification of patients to the risk groups according to treatment protocols. Hybrid gene TEL/AML1 defines subgroup of children with better prognosis and due to its high frequency provides us with a very useful tool for MRD detection.

We studied monoclonality of tumour cells by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in paediatric lymphomas. In B-lymphomas we detected monoclonal rearrangement of the immunoglobulin of the T-cell receptor delta and gamma chain (TCR, TCR-delta, TCR-gamma) by an analogous way. We examined a group of 37 paediatric patients with lymphomas (26 with B-lymphomas and 11 with T-lymphomas). Monoclonal gene rearrangement was found in 34 cases, i.e. the method used in this study proved to be successful in 92% of cases. We confirmed our results by correlation with histologic and immunohistologic diagnoses. The method may be used as a complementary diagnostic tool in differential diagnosis of lymphoma versus non-neoplastic proliferation of lymphatic tissue, in distinction between B- and T-lymphomas, and to separate lymphomas and other malignancies. Beside the pure diagnostic usage we perceive the main importance of the method in monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD), because amplified products of PCR may be sequenced and used for preparing tumour specific primers and probes.