FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR THE LACK OF CORRELATION BETWEEN THE BREAKPOINT SITE WITHIN M-BCR AND CML PROGNOSIS AND FOR THE OCCASIONAL INVOLVEMENT OF P53 IN TRANSFORMATION
Rct. Aguiar et al., FURTHER EVIDENCE FOR THE LACK OF CORRELATION BETWEEN THE BREAKPOINT SITE WITHIN M-BCR AND CML PROGNOSIS AND FOR THE OCCASIONAL INVOLVEMENT OF P53 IN TRANSFORMATION, Cancer genetics and cytogenetics, 84(2), 1995, pp. 105-112
The actual significance of the type of BCR-ABL rearrangement in chroni
c myeloid leukemia (CML) prognosis remains controversial. Also, the mo
lecular events that lead to CML progression ore largely unknown. We an
alyzed the M-BCR breakpoint position in 64 CML patients by Southern bl
ot and correlated the molecular findings with the cytogenetic, hematol
ogic, and clinical data. No statistically significant differences were
found with respect to the clinical and hemotologic data presented at
diagnosis or in the median duration of chronic phase (CP) and survival
between the groups of patients with 5' and 3' breakpoints. We also st
udied by PCR-SSCP and direct sequencing the p53 gene in patients with
specimens available in both chronic phase and blast crisis. We identif
ied p53 mutations in 17% of the blast crisis samples analyzed, whereas
no abnormalities were found in CP. This finding suggests that only in
a minor fraction of cases are lesions in the p53 gene involved in tra
nsformation. Given the present findings, along with previous reports,
we believe that a novel mechanism to explain the heterogeneity of CML
should be postulated and actively pursued, as should the identificatio
n of secondary molecular events more consistently involved in progress
ion.