Prevalence and Prognostic Impact of CEBPA Gene Mutation (Simplified Assay Technique) in Egyptian Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients with Normal Cytogenetics

Mutations of the CCAAT/enhancer binding protein alpha (CEBPA) gene have been associated with a favorable outcome in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), especially in those with a normal cytogenetics. However, few studies were done on Egyptian AML patients and none of them look for easier and less expensive method for CEBPA mutation screening. This study is aimed to investigate the prevalence of CEBPA mutations and its clinical and prognostic impact in Egyptian patients with cytogenetically normal AML (CN-AML). This was done using fragment analysis to assess this method as a cheaper and less laborious screening method compared to sequencing. Fluorescent PCR was done to amplify CEBPA gene in DNA extracted from 40 CN-AML patients. This was followed by fragment analysis of post-PCR products using GeneMapper software for detection of CEBPA mutations. CEBPA gene mutations were found in 7/40 CN-AML patients (17.5 %) and it was significantly associated with lower LDH levels (p = 0.039). All patients with CEBPA mutations achieved clinical remission and none of them showed refractoriness, relapsed, or died by the end of the 2 years study period. Furthermore, those patients demonstrate significantly longer overall and disease free survival than those with wild type CEBPA gene (p = 0.001 and 0.004 respectively). CEBPA mutation has a favorable prognostic impact in CN-AML. Fragment analysis is a good, lees laborious and cheaper method that can be used for CEBPA mutation screening in patients with CN-AML.