Zahran Asmaa M, Badrawy Hosny, Ibrahim Abeer
South Egypt Cancer Institute, Assiut University, EL-Mesak Street, Assiut, Egypt.
Int J Clin Oncol. 2014 Aug;19(4):753-60. doi: 10.1007/s10147-013-0615-9. Epub 2013 Sep 26.
Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is a clonal disease, characterized by a reciprocal t(9, 22) that results in a chimeric BCR/ABL fusion gene. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) constitute the main cell population that enables cancer cells to evade immune surveillance.
The purpose of our study was to investigate the level of Tregs in newly diagnosed CML patients and to correlate it with the patients' clinical, laboratory and molecular data. We also aimed to assess the effect of treatment using tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) on Treg levels.
Tregs were characterized and quantified by flow cytometry in 63 newly diagnosed CML patients and 40 healthy controls. TKI was used in 45 patients with chronic phase CML, and the response to therapy was correlated with baseline Treg levels.
The percentages of Tregs were significantly increased in CML patients compared to the controls. Treg numbers were significantly lower in patients with chronic phase CML versus the accelerated and blast phases, and were significantly lower in patients with complete molecular remission (CMR) compared to those patients without CMR.
Tregs may play a role in the maintenance of CML. Moreover, the decrease of their levels in patients with CMR suggests that Tregs might have a clinical value in evaluating the effects of therapy.
慢性髓性白血病（CML）是一种克隆性疾病，其特征为9号和22号染色体相互易位，导致嵌合性BCR/ABL融合基因。调节性T细胞（Tregs）是使癌细胞逃避免疫监视的主要细胞群体。
本研究旨在调查新诊断的CML患者中Tregs的水平，并将其与患者的临床、实验室和分子数据相关联。我们还旨在评估使用酪氨酸激酶抑制剂（TKI）治疗对Treg水平的影响。
通过流式细胞术对63例新诊断的CML患者和40例健康对照者的Tregs进行鉴定和定量。45例慢性期CML患者使用TKI治疗，并将治疗反应与基线Treg水平相关联。
与对照组相比CML患者Tregs的百分比显著增加。慢性期CML患者的Treg数量显著低于加速期和急变期患者；与未达到完全分子缓解（CMR）的患者相比，达到CMR的患者Treg数量显著更低。
Tregs可能在CML维持中发挥作用；此外，CMR患者Treg水平降低表明Tregs在评估治疗效果方面可能具有临床价值。
