[Clinical characteristics and prognosis of childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia with CD123 expression]

To investigate the expression of CD123 in children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and its effect on the clinical characteristics and prognosis of children with B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL).

A retrospective analysis was conducted on the clinical data of 251 children with ALL who were admitted to the Department of Hematology and Oncology, Children's Hospital of Kunming Medical University, from December 2019 to June 2022. According to the expression of CD123 at initial diagnosis, the children were divided into CD123⁺ group and CD123^- group, and the two groups were compared in terms of clinical characteristics and treatment outcome. The factors influencing the prognosis were analyzed.

Among the 251 children with ALL, there were 146 children (58.2%) in the CD123⁺ group. The B-ALL group had a significantly higher positive expression rate of CD123 than the acute T lymphocyte leukemia group (P<0.05). Compared with the CD123^- group, the CD123⁺ group had significantly lower peripheral blood leukocyte count and percentage of juvenile cells and a significantly higher proportion of children with high hyperdiploid karyotype or an age of 1-10 years, with a relatively low proportion of children with E2A-PBX1 fusion gene (P<0.05). The multivariate Cox proportional-hazards regression model analysis showed that compared with the >10 years group, the 1-10 years group had a significantly higher overall survival rate (P<0.05), and compared with the high risk group, the moderate risk group had a significantly higher event-free survival rate in children with B-ALL (P<0.05).

CD123 is widely expressed in children with B-ALL, and positive expression of CD123 might be an indicator for good prognosis in children with B-ALL, which is of great significance for evaluating the efficacy of remission induction therapy and survival prognosis of children with B-ALL.