A relation between c-myc expression and prognosis of leukemia patients in Indonesia

Overexpression of c-myc, c-myb and c-fos proto-oncogene has been observed in many leukemia cells. However, a relation between those oncogene expressions and prognosis of the leukemia is not known in Indonesia. In order to elucidate the relation, expression of those oncogenes in leukemia cells from 52 patients in Indonesia was examined by Northern blot analysis and was compared with prognosis of the disease. The leukemia patients who survived for more than 2 years were 37% of the 52 patients. Many of the samples expressed c-myc mRNA (92%). Although strong expression of c-myb and c-fos mRNA was detected in the samples (c-myb expression in 35% of the leukemia cells and c-fos in 52%), those co-expressions with c-myc mRNA did not alter the prognosis. On the contrary, all of the 4 patients suffering from leukemia which did not express c-myc mRNA survived for more than 2 years. Therefore, c-myc expression in leukemia cells may be used as an indicator for deciding prognosis of the leukemia patients in Indonesia.