<i>TP53</i> alterations are present in almost all cases of ALL with low hypodiploidy and are associated with alterations of the lymphoid transcription factor <i>IKZF2</i> and the tumor-suppressor gene loci <i>CDKN2A</i> and <i>CDKN2B.</i> Remarkably, more than half of <i>TP53</i> mutations in low-hypodiploid ALL in children are present in nontumor cells, indicating that low-hypodiploid ALL is a manifestation of Li-Fraumeni syndrome.
A total of 22/31 children with ALL with methylated <i>CDKN2B</i> (71.0%) and 17/41 children with ALL with unmethylated <i>CDKN2B</i> (41.46%) exhibited increased telomerase activity (>15 TPG units).
We performed a comprehensive analysis of the deletion and the methylation profile of CDKN2A (hereafter identified separately as p16 and p14, for the different proteins encoded) and CDKN2B (hereafter p15) in 91 newly diagnosed B-ALL patients (61 children, 30 adults).
Recently, methylation of a cell cycle control pathway composed of P73, P15 and P57KIP2 has been shown to confer poor prognosis to adult patients with ALL.
Inactivation of the Ink4 gene locus locus on 9p comprising the tumour suppressor gene p16ink4a and its neighbours p14ARF and p15ink4b is common in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), but the prognostic significance is controversial.
A broad spectrum of tumor suppressor gene alterations do occur in hematological malignancies, especially structural alterations of p15(INK4A), p15(INK4B) and p14(ARF) in acute lymphoblastic leukemia as well as methylation of these genes in several myeloproliferative disorders.
The methylation-specific polymerase chain reaction (MS-PCR) was used to analyze p15 and p16 gene methylation in 49 cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and 29 cases of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML).
We also demonstrated for the first time concomitant p16 and p15 methylation in 22% (8/37) of adults with AML or ALL, exclusively in those with M2, M4, or L2 subtypes.
We studied bone marrow samples of 42 newly diagnosed and untreated patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia for the incidence of deletions of p16INK4a/p14ARF and p15INK4b using Southern blot analysis and determined the clinical outcome with regard to complete remission (CR) duration, event-free survival, and overall survival.
Further, by characterizing the roles of translocation-generated fusion genes (TEL-AML 1) and tumor suppressor genes (p15INK4B and p16INK4A) in treatment response, it may be possible to identify new and selective targets and/or treatment strategies for both children and adults with ALL who are refractory to current therapies.
Particular attention will be paid to the data concerning the incidence of p16INK4A (and p15INK4B) gene(s) inactivation in human acute lymphoblastic leukemias.
We identified homozygous deletion of p16 and p15 genes in five (19%) of 27 acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALLs) and in two (11%) of 19 acute myeloid leukemias (AMLs).
In hematological malignancies, homozygous deletions of p16ink4a and p15ink4b occur frequently in acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (14-40%), lymphoid type blast crisis of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), and adult T cell leukemia (ATL), but p16ink4a deletions are more frequent than p15ink4b deletions, and hemizygous deletions of either p16ink4a and p15ink4b are rare.
Homozygous deletions of p16/MTS1 and p15/MTS2 genes are frequent in t(1;19)-negative but not in t(1;19)-positive B precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia in childhood.
In order to determine whether these genes are more widely involved in haematological malignancies, we have investigated a total of 84 samples that did not have homozygous p16 or p15 deletions from patients with acute lymphoid leukaemia (n=13), acute myeloid leukaemia (n=24) and chronic myeloid leukaemia in blast crisis (n=43) as well as four haemopoietic cell lines. p15 and p16 exon 1 and exon 2 were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), analysed by single-stranded conformation polymorphism (SSCP) and subsequently by sequencing.