Project description:Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogenous and complex blood cancer, with poor prognosis and wide-raging complications. Early identification and prediction of complications is vital for effective disease management. We performed longitudinal plasma profiling of 26 AML patients during chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, to explore the role of plasma proteins in evaluating the severity and prognosis of AML. We found that the majority of proteins varied in levels between patients, while remaining relatively stable within patients. Inflammatory proteins were significantly correlated with fever and its complications, and may serve as a useful biomarker panel to monitor AML patients during disease progression.
Project description:Chemotherapy may cause DNA damage within the oral mucosa of cancer patients leading to mucositis, a dose-limiting side effect for effective cancer treatment. We used whole genome gene expression analysis to identify cellular damage to the mucosal tissue occuring two days post induction chemotherapy and identified gene expression patterns that may or may not be predictive of oral mucositis. Experiment Overall Design: Punch buccal biopsies from healthy controls (HC, samples BRENC1, BRENC2, BRENC3, n=3) and five AML patients pre-chemotherapy (Pre-C, samples BREN11, BREN21, BREN41, BREN51, n=4) and (Post-C, samples BREN22, BREN32, BREN42, BREN52, n=4)(Ntotal=11) gave suitable RNA integrity to perform microarray analysis. Samples Pre-C:BREN31 and post-C:BREN12 were not suitable for microarray analysis. Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 Array (Affymetrix, Santa Clara, CA) was used to conduct gene expression profiling.
Project description:Chemotherapy may cause DNA damage within the oral mucosa of cancer patients leading to mucositis, a dose-limiting side effect for effective cancer treatment. We used whole genome gene expression analysis to identify cellular damage to the mucosal tissue occuring two days post induction chemotherapy and identified gene expression patterns that may or may not be predictive of oral mucositis. Keywords: Treatment effect
Project description:PURPOSE: Inhibitors of histone deacetylases (HDACIs) like valproic acid (VPA) display activity in murine leukemia models, and induce tumor-selective cytoxicity against blasts from patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). However, despite of the existing knowledge of the potential function of HDACIs, there remain many unsolved questions especially regarding the factors that determine whether a cancer cell undergoes cell cycle arrest, differentiation, or death in response to HDACIs. Furthermore, there is still limited data on HDACIs effects in vivo, as well as HDACIs function in combination with standard induction chemotherapy, as most studies evaluated HDACIs as single agent in vitro. Thus, our first goal was to determine a VPA response signature in different myeloid leukemia cell lines in vitro, followed by an in vivo analysis of VPA effects in blasts from adult de novo AML patients entered within two randomized multicenter treatment trials of the German-Austrian AML Study Group. PATIENTS AND METHODS: To define a VPA in vitro response signature we profiled gene expression in myeloid leukemia cell lines (HL60, NB4, HEL, and K-562) following 48 hours of VPA treatment by using DNA Microarray technology. Next, we evaluated the VPA effects on gene expression in AML samples collected within the AMLSG 07-04 trial for younger (age<60yrs) and within the AMLSG 06-04 trial for older adults (age>60yrs), in which patients are randomized to receive standard induction chemotherapy (idarubicine, cytarabine, and etoposide = ICE) with or without concomitant VPA. We profiled gene expression in diagnostic AML blasts and following 48 hours of treatment with ICE or ICE/VPA. cDNA microarrays from the Stanford Functional Genomics Facility were used to perform mRNA transcript profiling of 4 leukemia cell lines treated with 1mM VPA for 48 hours in comparison to untreated cell lines, and to perform mRNA transcript profiling of freshly-frozen, from matched acute myeloid leukemia peripheral blood specimens collected from 14 AML patients at diagnosis and following 48 hours of treatment with either chemotherapy +/- VPA.