Low expression of and predicts risk of relapse in childhood B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia: a retrospective cohort study.

CtBP is a known corepressor abundantly expressed in cancer and regulates genes involved in cancer initiation, progression, and metastasis. This study aimed to investigate the prognostic significance of expression in a cohort of pediatric patients with B cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (BCP-ALL). It further evaluated the role of combined and expression in risk of relapse of BCP-ALL. The expression of mRNA was retrospectively detected by a qRT-PCR approach in bone marrow samples from 104 children with newly diagnosed BCP-ALL. was assessed simultaneously in the 100 patients included in this study. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis determined the cut off levels for and expression with good predictive significance for relapse of BCP-ALL. Patients with low expression had inferior relapse-free survival (RFS) and event-free survival (EFS) when compared to patients with high- expression. The expression level of was significantly associated with expression ( = 0.449,  < 0.001). Patients were stratified into three groups according to the combined evaluation of the two gene expression, and patients with simultaneous low-expression had the worst outcome (6-year RFS: 64.6%±12.8%,  < 0.001). Multivariate analysis demonstrated the expression of and , minimal residual disease (MRD) at day 33 remained as independent prognostic factors for RFS. Based on the final Cox hazards model, we proposed an algorithm to calculate the risk index, which was more precise for predicting relapse. In conclusion, low expression of and correlated with poor outcome and predicted risk of relapse in pediatric BCP-ALL.