Immunogenotype changes prevail in relapses of young children with TEL-AML1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia and derive mainly from clonal selection.

Purpose: Variations of the immunogenotype and TEL deletions in children with TEL-AML1+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia support the hypothesis that relapses derive from a persistent TEL-AML1+ preleukemic/leukemic clone rather than a resistant leukemia. We aimed at elucidating the relationship between the immunogenotype patterns at diagnosis and relapse as well as their clinical and biological relevance.

Patients And Methods: Immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor gene rearrangements were analyzed in 41 children with a TEL-AML1+ acute lymphoblastic leukemia and an early (up to 30 months after diagnosis; n = 12) or late (at 30 months or later; n = 29) disease recurrence by a standardized PCR approach.

Treatment for soft tissue sarcoma in childhood and adolescence. Austrian results within the CWS 96 study.

Objective: The aim of the CWS 96 Study was to achieve an optimal treatment in children and adolescents with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) implementing a further refinement of risk-adapted allocation to chemotherapy, surgery and radiotherapy.

Methods: Treatment stratification was based on tumour histology, TNM status, postsurgical stage, localisation and age. Local tumour control was ensured by surgery and risk-adapted radiotherapy.

TEL deletion analysis supports a novel view of relapse in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Purpose: TEL (ETV6)-AML1 (RUNX1) chimeric gene fusions are frequent genetic abnormalities in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). They often arise prenatally as early events or initiating events and are complemented by secondary postnatal genetic events of which deletion of the non-rearranged, second TEL allele is the most common. This consistent sequence of molecular pathogenesis facilitates an analysis of the clonal origins of relapse in this leukemia, which has some unusual clinical features.

Clonal variation of the immunogenotype in relapsed ETV6/RUNX1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia indicates subclone formation during early stages of leukemia development.

Recent data suggest that late relapses evolve from an ancestral ETV6/RUNX1-positive (also designated TEL/AML1-positive) clone resulting from secondary changes (ETV6 deletion) that differ from those of the initial leukemia and, as a consequence, may also deviate in their clonotypic immunoglobulin/T-cell receptor (IG/TCR) gene rearrangements. The aim of our study was to compare the immunogenotype and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) patterns of the unrearranged ETV6 allele of matched diagnosis/relapse samples from 12 children with an early or late relapse. We identified varying degrees of differences in the IG/TCR in six of them.

Late relapses evolve from slow-responding subclones in t(12;21)-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia: evidence for the persistence of a preleukemic clone.

TEL/AML1-positive childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemias (ALLs) generally have low-risk features, but still about 20% of patients relapse. Our initial molecular genetic analyses in 2 off-treatment relapses suggested that the initial and relapse clones represent different subclones that evolved from a common TEL/AML1-positive, treatment-resistant precursor. In order to further elaborate on this hypothesis, we studied 2 patients with late systemic relapses of their TEL/AML1-positive ALL (41 months and 49 months after initial diagnosis, respectively) who had distinct clonal antigen receptor gene rearrangements at diagnosis and relapse.

Low frequency of clonotypic Ig and T-cell receptor gene rearrangements in t(4;11) infant acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and its implication for the detection of minimal residual disease.

Infant t(4;11) acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a rare but cytogenetically well defined subgroup of immature B-cell precursor (BCP) ALL. To date, the configuration of their antigen receptor genes has not been studied in a large group of patients so far. In this study on 27 t(4;11) infant ALL, we have used standardized primer sets for the detection of all incomplete and complete immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chain (IGH) rearrangements, as well as for the Ig light chain kappa (IGK), T-cell receptor delta (TCRD) and gamma (TCRG) rearrangements that are most common in childhood BCP ALL.