Prognostic significance of gravin expression in acute leukemias

ABSTRACTPrognostıc Sıgnıfıcance Of GravınExpressıon In Acute LeukemıasLeukomogenesis is a multistep process and many factors are included in this process.It is important to determine the treatment targets and factors affecting the prognosis in theplanning of the therapy. Prognostic factors are valuable for the therapeutic choices.Gravin is a tumor suppressor gene belonging to the A kinase anchoring protein family.Gravin has been studied in a limited number of the tumors and its expression has been foundto be decreased. There is one study exploring gravin expression in acute leukemias and it hasbeen shown to be decreased. However there is no study exploring the prognostic significanceof gravin in a detailed manner in literature. The aim of this study is to detect the Gravinexpression in acute leukemias and, if there is, to show the association with prognosis. RT-PCR was used fort his aim. Actin was used for control gene expression. Results wereevaluated with Comperative Ct method.One hundred thirty seven cases with acute leukemia and 25 healthy controls wereincluded in his study. A hundred of the cases (73%) had AML, 37cases (27 %) had ALL.Male/female ratio was 70/67. Actin Ct was 21.64, Gravin Ct was 38.17±2.5 (41-28.6),Gravin- Actin Ct was 16.2±2.5 (19.3-5.2) in control group. Actin Ct was 22.5± 2.8(17.8-35.1), Gravin Ct was 42.2±4.9 (31.2-50), Gravin- Actin Ct was 19.6±4.5 in studygroup. Gravin- Actin Ct was statistically different between patients and controls (p value<0.001). Gravin expression was found to be decereased 11 fold as compared with controls.According to the Ct values, overall survival was found to be 17, 24 and 48 weeks incases with 0-16, 16-20 and more than 20, respectively.In conclusion gravin expression has been found to be a negative factor for overallsurvival. However it is impossible to suggest this gene, which is known as a tumor suppressorgene, as a bad prognostic factor due to the lack of gravin isoforms. On the other hand, the lossof some tumor suppressor genes may be a good prognostic indicator and this may be anothercritical point.Key words: Acute Leukemia, Gravin, Tumor Suppressor Gene, Prognosis.