Expression of CD71 by flow cytometry in acute leukemias: More often seen in acute myeloid leukemia.

Background: CD71 is a marker that has been usually used for identifying dysplasia in the erythroid series. We have tried to evaluate the expression of CD71 in various types of acute leukemias.

Materials And Methods: We studied 48 patients of acute leukemia, of which 25 were acute myeloid leukemia (AML), 13 were precursor B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL), 8 were T-ALL, and 2 were mixed phenotype acute leukemia (T/myeloid) as per the WHO classification.

Results: We found that the expression of CD71 was most prevalent in AMLs (84%), followed by T-ALL (50%) and least in B-ALL (30%).

Conclusion: This finding clearly shows the higher expression of CD71 in AMLs compared to other common type of leukemias, such as B- and T-ALL. We suggest that the high expression of CD71 in AMLs could be used as a diagnostic marker and may also be used for minimal residual disease analysis after further studies in posttreatment scenario. This study is the first of its kind in the South Asian population.