S. Drunat et al., Quantification of TEL-AML1 transcript for minimal residual disease assessment in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, BR J HAEM, 114(2), 2001, pp. 281-289
Strategies currently used for residual disease detection in acute lymphobla
stic leukaemia (ALL) rely on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection of i
mmunoglobulin and T-cell receptor rearrangements. The TEL-AML1 fusion trans
cript, which is associated with t(12;21) (p13;q22), is found in 25% of chil
dhood B-cell precursor ALL, and represents an interesting alternative targe
t. We compared two methods for quantitating TEL-AML1 fusion transcripts: co
mpetitive PCR and real-time PCR. These techniques showed similar sensitivit
y (5 x 10(-5)) and reproducibility. Giving highly correlated results, both
techniques can be conveniently used for TEL-AML1 transcript quantification.
The constancy of TEL-AML1 expression was evaluated by measuring TEL-AML1 t
ranscripts at different steps of the cell cycle, and in 21 cases of ALL at
diagnosis. No major variation in TEL-AML1 expression was observed during th
e cell cycle or in 20/21 of the ALL patients. Residual disease was then det
ermined after completion of induction therapy in 20 patients with a TEL-AML
1-positive ALL. Seven patients out of 20 (35%) were still positive, includi
ng two patients with high level of residual blasts (close to or beyond 10(-
2)). When comparison was possible, results obtained using TEL-AML1 quantifi
cation were in accordance with those obtained using T-cell receptor rearran
gements analysis.