Clinical Significance of CD34 Expression in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Lee, Je Jung; Chung, Ik Joo; Yang, Duk Hwan; Cho, Sang Hee; Cho, Duck; Ryang, Dong Wook; Nam, Chan Eun; Kim, Hyeoung Joon

Abstract

BACKGROUND
A number of clinical and biological factors in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have been used to predict the response to induction treatment or the likelihood of relapse. This study investigated CD34 expression in AML patients to evaluate its clinical and prognostic significance.
METHODS
This study included 165 patients with de novo AML who underwent flow cytometry for CD34 at diagnosis between July 1994 and February 2001. To analyze the response to or outcome of therapy, we evaluated 81 patients who received induction chemotherapy with idarubicin and either cytarabine or N4-behenoyl-1-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine.
RESULTS
CD34 was expressed in 38.1+/-2.7% of mononuclear cells that isolated from AML patients, and 56.4% of the patients with AML were CD34+. There were no significant differences in the clinical and hematological parameters between the CD34+ and CD34- groups. The patients with CD34+ frequently encountered in M2 subtype (49.5%), and cytogenetic abnormality of t (8;21) and karyotypes with poor risk were CD34+ in 66.7% and 92.9% of the cases, respectively. When we compared the CD34+ group with CD34- group, no significant differences were found in CR rate (70.9% vs 76.9%, P=0.61), in median duration of overall survival (16.4+/-2.4 months vs 25.1+/-3.9 months, P=0.45), or in disease free survival (P=0.42).
CONCLUSION
This study did not show the definitive clinical and prognostic implications of CD34 expression. Further studies with a large number of patients are needed to elucidate the association of CD34 expression with specific subtypes of AML, such as t (8;21) or t (15;17) karyotypes.