Micro-RNA-16 expression in paraffin-embedded specimen correlates with overall survival of T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia.

Yanfeng Xi, Jing Li, Likun Zan, Jinfen Wang, Guoping Wang, Yi Ning

Department of Pathology, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430030, China.

Human pathology 2013 Jun

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The diagnosis and prognosis of T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia represent a clinical challenge due to their relative rarity as well as their heterogeneous morphology and immunophenotype. In contrast to the significant progress in uncovering genetic lesions and prognostic factors for B-cell lineage lymphoid malignancies, prognostic markers that can predict clinical outcome of T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia remain to be discovered and validated. Recently, specific micro-RNAs have emerged as potential biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of various types of tumor. Among them, miR-16 is known to play important roles in the development of hematological malignancies. Using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, we analyzed miR-16 expression level in archived formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded diagnostic lymph node specimens from a total of 72 patients with T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia and for which clinical follow-up information was available. Although no statistically significant difference was evident in patients with T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia versus controls with reactive lymph nodes (P = .163), T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia patients with a greater than median expression level of miR-16 had a longer overall survival than patients with a less than median expression level. The overall 1-year survival rate was 50% for the high expression group but was 26.5% for the low expression group (P = .043). To our knowledge, we provide here the first evidence that the expression of a single micro-RNA, miR-16, is associated with clinical outcome of patients with T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia. Therefore, miR-16 may be considered as a potential prognostic marker for T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Citation

Yanfeng Xi, Jing Li, Likun Zan, Jinfen Wang, Guoping Wang, Yi Ning. Micro-RNA-16 expression in paraffin-embedded specimen correlates with overall survival of T-lymphoblastic lymphoma/leukemia. Human pathology. 2013 Jun;44(6):1011-6