PURPOSE

We aimed to assess the role of CEBPalpha mutations in the progression of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) and their cooperating mutations.

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

Mutational analysis of CEBPalpha with direct sequencing for each PCR product was done on matched bone marrow samples obtained from 50 adult patients with MDS at diagnosis and at AML transformation. Cloning analysis was used to determine the allelic distribution.

RESULTS

CEBPalpha mutations were identified in four patients at diagnosis of MDS, including one with refractory anemia with excess blasts and three with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. At AML transformation, three patients retained the identical mutant clones as their initial diagnosis, three acquired the mutations, and one lost CEBPalpha mutation when she gained FLT3/ITD mutation. Together, seven patients had CEBPalpha mutations throughout the disease course; four patients had NH(2)-terminal mutations resulting in a frameshift and truncation of the protein, three of them had two different mutations either on the same alleles or on different alleles, two had missense mutations, and one had a deletion in the basic region leucine zipper domain. Except for one with coexistence of N-ras mutation, no sample harbored cooperating mutations with FLT3 or N-ras genes. CEBPalpha mutations had no influence on the time to AML progression or overall survival.

CONCLUSIONS

Our results show that CEBPalpha mutations play a role in a subset of patients with MDS, especially in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia. The mutation status was heterogeneous, exhibiting identical clone, clonal change, or clonal evolution during the progression to AML.