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Blood, 15 July 2007, Vol. 110, No. 2, pp. 670-677. Prepublished online as a Blood First Edition Paper on March 28, 2007; DOI 10.1182/blood-2007-02-066852. This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplemental Table All Versions of this Article: blood-2007-02-066852v1 110/2/670    most recent Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Rights and Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Damm-Welk, C. Articles by Woessmann, W. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Damm-Welk, C. Articles by Woessmann, W. Related Collections Neoplasia Oncogenes and Tumor Suppressors Clinical Trials and Observations Social Bookmarking                   What's this?  Previous Article  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Article  NEOPLASIA Prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells in bone marrow or peripheral blood as detected by qualitative and quantitative PCR in pediatric NPM-ALK–positive anaplastic large-cell lymphoma Christine Damm-Welk1, Kerstin Busch1, Birgit Burkhardt1, Jutta Schieferstein1, Susanne Viehmann1, Ilske Oschlies2, Wolfram Klapper2, Martin Zimmermann1, Jochen Harbott1, Alfred Reiter1, and Willi Woessmann1 1 Justus-Liebig-University, Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Giessen, Germany; 2 Department of Pathology, Hematopathology Section and Lymph Node Registry, University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Kiel, Germany Clinical and histopathological characteristics have limited prognostic value for children with anaplastic large-cell lymphoma (ALCL). We evaluated the presence, extent, and prognostic impact of circulating tumor cells in bone marrow (BM) and peripheral blood (PB) of children and adolescents with NPM-ALK–positive ALCL at diagnosis using qualitative and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for NPM-ALK. Numbers of NPM-ALK transcripts were normalized to 104 copies ABL (NCNs). BM was analyzed from 80 patients and PB from 52. BM was positive for NPM-ALK in 47.5% of patients, and positivity was significantly correlated with clinical stage, mediastinal or visceral involvement, microscopic BM involvement, and histologic subtype. Qualitative and quantitative PCR results in BM and PB strongly correlated. BM PCR was associated with the cumulative incidence of relapses (CI-Rs): CI-R was 50% ± 10% for 38 PCR-positive and 15% ± 7% for 42 PCR-negative patients (P < .001). Sixteen patients with more than 10 NCNs NPM-ALK in BM had a CI-R of 71% ± 14% compared with a CI-R of 18% ± 6% for 59 patients with 10 or fewer NCNs (P < .001). PB PCR results led to a similar grouping. Thus, quantitative PCR in BM or PB allows identification of 20% of patients experiencing 60% of all relapses with an event-free survival of 20%. CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this? This article has been cited by other articles: K. Pulford, C. Damm-Welk, B. Burkhardt, M. Zimmerman, A. Reiter, K. Ait-Tahar, and W. Woessmann Circulating Antibodies to ALK Inversely Correlat with Relapse Risk and Circulating Tumor Cells in Children and Adolescents with ALK-Positive Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma Blood (ASH Annual Meeting Abstracts), November 16, 2008; 112(11): 2831 - 2831. [Abstract] A. Reiter Diagnosis and Treatment of Childhood Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Hematology, January 1, 2007; 2007(1): 285 - 296. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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