Expression of CD38 and ZAP-70 in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and their relation to clinical stage

Abstract EN

Background : Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a disease with a variable clinical course.

In aggressive disease, the CLL cells usually express an unmutated immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable region gene (IgVH) and the 70 - kD zeta-associated protein (ZAP - 70), whereas in indolent disease, the CLL cells usually express mutated IgVH but lack expression of ZAP - 70.

Also, CD38 appears to be a useful prognostic marker which was thought to identify IgVH mutation but is now viewed as an independent marker of the clinical course and outcome in CLL.

Patients and Methods : We evaluated 63 patients with CLL for ZAP - 70 and CD38 expression.

22 of them were newly diagnosed, while 41 had started therapy before enrollment in our study.

We investigated the association between the results and clinical stage, blood counts and the time from diagnosis to initial therapy.

Results and Conclusions : Both ZAP - 70 and CD38 expression were shown to correlate with the total leukocyte counts and absolute lymphocyte counts in our CLL patients.

CD38 expression was also shown to correlate with advanced stages of the disease in the untreated group.

However, in the treated group, the time from diagnosis to initial therapy did not differ significantly between ZAP - 70 + ve and - ve or CD38 + ve and - ve patients.

To confirm this finding, we need to expand our study on a larger number of patients.