EXPRESSION OF SOME APOPTOSIS-CONTROLLING PROTEINS IN PEDIATRIC LYMPHOPROLIFERATIVE MALIGNANCIES

Sallam SA¹, Soliman GT¹, Zaghloul MS², Alrayhany MA¹ and Ismail AM¹

¹al-Minya Medical School, al-Minya, Egypt

²National Cancer Institute, Cairo University, Cairo, Egypt.

Objective: to determine the serum levels of Bcl-2 and soluble Fas in children with lymphoproliferative malignancies and to find out their prognostic value.

Methods: Total 39 children with newly diagnosed Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL); Hodgkin Lymphoma (HL); and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) were enrolled in the study,28 males and 11 females aged from 0.5–14 years. Twelve healthy children of matchable age and sex served as a control group. All cases and controls were subjected to complete blood picture and liver and renal function tests. Cases only were subjected to bone marrow (BM) examination; cerebrospinal fluid examination; lymph node biopsy; CT and bone scan. For both diseased cases and controls serum levels of Bcl-2 and Fas were determined by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Results: Serum levels of Fas and Bcl-2 were significantly elevated in different groups of patients when compared with control. In cases with ALL, serum levels of Fas were significantly higher in group of patients with central nervous system involvement than in group without (P<0.01), however, serum levels of Bcl-2 showed no significant difference between those groups. In cases with NHL, serum levels of Fas and Bcl-2 were significantly higher in group of patients with BM infiltration than in group without infiltration (P<0.0001). In cases with NHL and HL, but not ALL, serum levels of Fas and Bcl-2 were significantly higher in resistant patients than those with complete remission. There was no significant difference between serum levels of Fas before and after treatment in all patients groups. However, serum levels of Bcl-2 were significantly lowered after treatment in NHL, HL and ALL groups (P<0.05, P<0.001 and P<0.001 respectively).

Conclusion: High serum levels of Bcl-2 and Fas were correlated with poor prognosis in patients with HL and NHL, while no correlation was found with prognosis in patients with ALL.

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