Clinical significance of detection of bcr/abl gene in chronic myeloid leukemia

Objective To investigate the clinical significance of the detection of bcr/abl gene in chronic myeloid leukemia(CML).Method Expression of bcr/abl gene was determined by fluorogenic probe quantitative RT-PCR(FQ-RT-PCR)in 112 cases of CML.Results No bcr/abl gene was revealed in the control group, while in 112 cases of CML group the positive rate was 88.39%(99/112) with an average bcr/abl gene expression of (3.2~7.8)×107 copies/L. The results of Ph chromatosome analysis showed that 51 patients were Ph(+)/bcr(+),5 patients were Ph(-)/bcr(+), 9 patients were Ph(+)/bcr(-)and 2 patients were Ph(-)/bcr(-) respectively. In 17 patients, before interferon-α therapy, average bcr/abl gene expression was (2.60±0.9)×107 copies/L, while after interferon-α therapy, the average bcr/abl gene expression was (1.82±0.57)×107 copies/L. The difference between two groups was significant(P0.05).Conclusion The quantitative detection of bcr/abl gene expression and dynamic evaluation can help to make diagnosis, determine therapeutic effect and prognosis for CML.