NOTCH-1 Gene Mutations Influence Survival in Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients

Although NOTCH-1 gene mutations were reported to contributes to leukemogenesis in lymphocytic leukemias, its role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains unclear. Therefor; this study was designed to determine the prevalence and clinical impact of NOTCH-1 mutations in AML patients.

In the current study, NOTCH-1 gene mutations were identified in Bone Marrow samples obtained from fifty primary AML patients before start of therapy using Sanger sequencing.

NOTCH-1 gene mutations were detected in 6 out of 50 AML cases (12%). The three mutations were (two mutations C7318A in the Pest domain exon 34); (another 2 in the Pest domain Del 7,344, ins C7349, G7356A and the last ones in the HD-N exon-26 (Del A4609). The clinical findings in the mutant AML (mu AML) patients did not significantly different as compared to the un mutated (unmut) AML patients.  There is significant association between CD7 aberrant expression and NOTCH-1 mutations. The complete remission was significantly higher in unmut AML cases as compared to mut AML ones (P=0.024). Multivariate (Age; Gender; Bone Marrow Blast cells; NOTCH-1 mutations) Cox regression analysis revealed that NOTCH-1 mutation is an independent risk factor for AML overall survival (P<0.001). The OS in unmut AML group (21.2 months) was significantly longer as compared to mut AML one (1.2 months) (P<0.001).

Our data indicate that NOTCH-1 gene mutations were detected in 12% of AML patients. These mutations displayed bad clinical outcome on AML patients. Therapeutic targeting of NOTCH-1 could be a potentially effective approach to combat master oncogenic drivers in AML.