Genetic Screening Diagnoses ALL Type

By using a screening technique called gene expression profiling, a doctor can diagnose which subtype of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) a patient has and select the appropriate treatment, according to a study published in the March issue of Cancer Cell.

ALL is the most common type of childhood cancer, but it responds well to appropriate treatment. There are many subtypes of ALL, and these different forms are sensitive to different treatment strategies, so selecting the right treatment is critical. In the study, scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital (Memphis, TN, USA) used gene expression profiling to examine cells from 360 ALL patients and found that each subtype had an individual genetic fingerprint. Gene expression profiling allows leukemia cells from a patient to be screened for thousands of genes at a time. The researchers found that the profiling was more than 95% accurate in diagnosing the correct subtype of ALL. In addition to the clinical benefits, they reported that the expression profiles of individual leukemia cells provide important clues to the biology of the disease and may lead to targets for new and better drugs.

"In the near future, development of custom diagnostics will significantly advance our ability to individualize therapy, so that each patient has the highest chance for cure,” said James Downing, M.D., leader of the St. Jude research team. "Moreover, we identified a new ALL subtype that had not been previously recognized.”




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