[Clinical significance of CD117/CD34 co-expression in adult patients with acute leukemia].

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVE: CD117 is highly expressed in acute non-lymphoblastic leukemia (ANLL), and may be used as an immunologic marker of myeloid leukemia. However CD117 is also expressed in some acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) cases. CD34 is highly expressed in both ALL and ANLL. This study was to explore the clinical significance of the co-expression of CD117/CD34 in adult patients with acute leukemia. METHODS: Flow cytometry (FCM) was used to detect the positive rate and expression level of CD117 in bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs) of 92 patients with ALL and 81 patients with ANLL. The difference between the rates of CD117 expression and CD117/CD34 co-expression in ALL patients and the difference of CD117/CD34 co-expression between ALL and ANLL patients were compared. Twenty healthy individuals were set as controls. RESULTS: The positive rate of CD117 was significantly lower in ALL than in ANLL (15.2% vs. 71.6%, P<0.001). The co-expression rate of CD117/CD34 was significantly lower in ALL than in ANLL (5.4% vs. 55.5%, P<0.001). The positive rate of CD117 was significantly higher than co-expression rate of CD117/CD34 in ALL (15.2% vs. 5.4%, P=0.029). CONCLUSIONS: CD117 may be used as an immunologic marker for acute myeloid leukemia. The co-expression rate of CD117/CD34 is lower than that of CD117 alone in ALL, and therefore, this may be used in the exclusive diagnosis of ALL.