Clinical Significance and Expression of Flt3 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Objective To investigate expression level of FLT3 in acute myeloid leukemia(AML),and evaluate the pathogenesis and clinical significance of FLT3 in AML.Methods The semi-quantitative RT-PCR method was performed to detect the expression levels of FLT3 in the bone marrow samples of 70 patients with AML,and 11 samples of benign hemopoietic patients.There were 36 samples with elderly AML and 34 samples with the non-elderly AML,include 31 patients with denovo AML,15 the patients of complete remission,24 from the patients of the refractory or relapse AML.Results The expression level of FLT3 in 70 patients with AML was significantly higher than the control group(P0.001). There was no difference in the expression level of FLT3 between elderly AML and non-elderly AML (P0.05).The expression level of the refractory or relapse AML was the highest,de novo AML was in the middle and the complete remission AML was the lowest.The difference of FLT3 expression level in three groups had statistic significance(P0.05).In each of the FAB subtype of de novo AML,the M3 was obviously lower than other subtype(P0.05);the M5 was obviously higher than other subtype(P0.05)and there was no significant difference among M2,M4 and M6(P0.05).Conclusion The over expression of FLT3 may play an important role in leukemogenesis.The expression lever of FLT3 is correlated with progression and prognosis of patients with elderly AML.It has the potential to be used as a mark to monitor the MRD (minimal residual disease).