Survival Linked to Expression of Single Tumor Gene in AML Subgroup

In the Pharmacogenomics Journal, researchers from Peking University Third Hospital and other centers in China describe a potential expression-based biomarker for cytogenetically normal forms of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Following on from past studies pointing to potential ties between NCS1 gene expression and survival outcomes in other cancer types — particularly in breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma — the team used available gene expression data to evaluate NCS1 expression levels in relation to survival outcomes for more than 500 cytogenetically normal AML cases tested through the Cancer Genome Atlas project and other studies. In the published datasets, and in a subsequent analysis of dozens more AML patients, the authors found that higher-than-usual tumors levels of NCS1 were linked to stretched-out event-free survival and overall survival times in cytogenetically-normal AML — in contrast to breast cancer and hepatocellular carcinoma, where enhanced expression of the gene corresponds to poorer survival outcomes. "This study shows the great prognostic value of the NCS1 expression in AML patients," they report, explaining that "high expression of NCS1 can predict favorable prognosis in [cytogenetically normal AML] patients."