Disease relevance of BAALC

• BAALC expression and FLT3 internal tandem duplication mutations in acute myeloid leukemia patients with normal cytogenetics: prognostic implications [1].

High impact information on BAALC

• 2. We conclude that high BAALC expression predicts an adverse prognosis and may define an important risk factor in AML with normal cytogenetics [2].
• BAALC expression predicts clinical outcome of de novo acute myeloid leukemia patients with normal cytogenetics: a Cancer and Leukemia Group B Study [2].
• For high BAALC expressers the hazard ratio of an event for OS, EFS, and DFS was respectively 2.7, 2.6, and 2 [2].
• We studied the prognostic impact of BAALC (Brain And Acute Leukemia, Cytoplasmic), a novel gene involved in leukemia, in 86 de novo AML patients with normal cytogenetics who were uniformly treated on Cancer and Leukemia Group B 9621 [2].
• CONCLUSIONS: Assessment of CEBPA mutations, FLT3-ITD, and BAALC expression permits to split normal-karyotype AML into clinically distinct subgroups [3].

Biological context of BAALC

• CONCLUSION: This study strengthens BAALC expression as one of the most important prognostic factors in AML patients with normal cytogenetics [1].
• The role of BAALC in hematopoiesis and leukemogenesis is unknown [4].
• CONCLUSIONS: BAALC expression is restricted to progenitor cells, and downregulation of BAALC occurs with cell differentiation [4].

Anatomical context of BAALC

• RESULTS: Expression analyses of FACSorted cells revealed high BAALC transcript levels in CD34(+) bone marrow cells including CD34(+)/CD38(-), CD34(+)/CD33(+), as well as CD34(+)/CD19(+)/CD10(+), CD34(+)/CD7(+), and CD34(+)/CD71(+)/CD45(-) cell fractions [4].
• We postulate that BAALC represents a novel marker of an early progenitor cell common to the myeloid, lymphoid, and erythroid pathways [4].
• BAALC, a novel marker of human hematopoietic progenitor cells [4].
• MATERIAL AND METHODS: We used real-time RT-PCR to show that BAALC is strongly expressed in CD34(+) cells from the bone marrow and blood and only weakly expressed in total normal bone marrow and blood cells [4].
• Finally, we demonstrate in MC3T3-E1 osteoblastic cells that BAALC overexpression regulates markers of osteoblast differentiation, including downregulating alkaline phosphatase and osteocalcin expression while inducing osteopontin expression [5].

Other interactions of BAALC

• BAALC expression and FLT3 mutation status should assist in tailoring induction and postremission therapies [1].
• PATIENTS AND METHODS: BAALC expression was determined by real-time reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction in pretreatment blood samples of 307 adults <or= 60 years of age with AML with normal cytogenetics [1].

Analytical, diagnostic and therapeutic context of BAALC

• Compared to low expressers, high BAALC expressers showed significantly inferior overall survival (OS; median, 1.7 vs 5.8 years, P =.02), event-free survival (EFS; median, 0.8 vs 4.9 years, P =.03), and disease-free survival (DFS; median, 1.4 vs 7.3 years, P =.03) [2].

References