Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Abstract. Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer representing 23 % of pediatric cancers. Wilms ' tumor-1 gene is a novel prognostic factor, minimal residual disease marker and therapeutic target in acute leukemia. Aim of the work: The aim of this work was to study the impact of WT-1 gene expression in the prognosis of ALL. Patients and methods: This study was conducted on 40 Egyptian children with newly diagnosed ALL who were subjected to full history taking, thorough clinical examination and laboratory investigations including; complete blood count, LDH, BM aspiration, cytochemistry, immunophenotyping, FISH technique for detection of t(12;21) and t(9;22) and assessment of WT-1 Gene by real-time PCR in BM samples at time of diagnosis. Results: Positive WT-1 gene expression was found in 22 cases (55%) and negative expression in 18 cases (45%). Positive WT-1 gene expression group (n=22) includes 14 males and 8 females with mean age at presentation of 5.261 ± 0.811 while negative WT-1 gene expression group (n=18) includes 12 males and 6 females with mean age at diagnosis of 9.669 ± 3.731 with significantly older age in negative WT-1 gene expression group but no significant difference