Expression of wilms tumor gene(WT1) in leukemia patients and its clinical significance

Objective To evaluate the expression of WT1 gene in leukemia patients and its clinical implication. Methods Nest RT-PCR technique was applied to examine WT1 gene expression in 50 patients with leukemia. Results The WT1 mRNA positive rates in acute myeloid leukemias and lymphoblastic leukemias were 77.3% (17/22) and 54.5%(6/11) . In chronic myeloid leukemia, WT1 mRNA was undetectable at chronic phase ; but was revealed in 5 of 9 patients at blast crisis (55.6 %). The rate of remission in the patients positive for WT1 was lower than in those negative for WT1 (31.3 % vs 69.2 %, P 0.05). Conclusion The WT1 was highly expressed in the majority of the patients with leukemia and thus was involved in human leukemogenesis. It indicated WT1 could be a new prognostic factor and a panleukemia marker for the detection of MRD.