Quantitative detection of the human cervical cancer oncogene for monitoring the minimal residual disease in acute leukemia

The human cervical cancer oncogene (HCCR) has been shown to be over-expressed in some solid tumors, and its function is involved in negative regulation of p53 tumor suppressor gene. However, the roles of HCCR in leukemia remain unclear. The present study is to investigate whether the expression levels of HCCR mRNA are associated with clinical prognosis in patients with acute leukemia (AL) and to explore the potential use as a biomarker for monitoring minimal residual disease (MRD) in AL. The mRNA levels of HCCR1 and HCCR2 were quantified by real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction in bone marrow samples from 80 adult de novo AL patients and 20 normal healthy donors. The expressions of HCCR1 and HCCR2 were significantly higher in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) than those in healthy donors ( P < 0.01), but there was no significant difference between AML and ALL ( P > 0.05). Besides white blood cell count, we did not find any significant correlation between HCCR expression and clinical characteristics, such as age, sex, CD34 antigen expression, and response to chemotherapy. HCCR was monitored in 12 cases during remission and/or relapse. Significant reductions of both HCCR1 and HCCR2 mRNA levels were observed in patients who had achieved complete remission after chemotherapy but not in patients with non-responsive. However, an increased HCCR expression was detected in these patients who relapsed. Our findings suggest that HCCR gene is over-expressed in AL patients and may be as a useful biomarker for monitoring MRD in AL.