Ricerc@Sapienza

To shed light into the molecular basis of Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia and to investigate the prognostic role of additional genomic lesions, we analyzed copy number aberrations using the Cytoscan HD Array in 116 newly diagnosed adult Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients enrolled in four different GIMEMA protocols, all based on a chemotherapy-free induction strategy. This analysis showed that Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients carry 7.8 lesions/case on average, with deletions outnumbering gains (88% vs 12%). The most common deletions were those targeting IKZF1, PAX5 and CDKN2A/B detected in 84%, 36% and 32% of cases, respectively. Patients carrying simultaneous deletions of IKZF1 plus CDKN2A/B and/or PAX5 had a significantly worse disease-free survival (24.9% vs 43.3%, p=0.026). The only IKZF1 isoform impacting on prognosis was the dominant negative (p=0.003). Copy number aberrations analysis showed that 18% of patients harbored MEF2C deletions, which were of two types, differing in size: the longer deletions were associated with the achievement of a complete molecular remission (p=0.05) and had a favorable impact on disease-free survival (64.3% vs 32.1% at 36 months, p=0.031). These findings retain statistical significance also in multivariate analysis (p=0.057). KRAS deletions, detected in 6% of cases, were associated with the achievement of a complete molecular remission (p=0.009). These results indicate that in adult Ph+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia a detailed evaluation of additional deletions - including CDKN2A/B, PAX5, IKZF1, MEF2C and KRAS - has prognostic implications and should be incorporated in the design of always more personalized treatment strategies.