Clinical significance of P53 and Bcl-2 in acute myeloid leukemia patients of Eastern India

The frequency of p53 and Bcl-2 protein expression in 100 newly diagnosed and 10 relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients was analyzed by immunocytochemistry (ICC). The Kaplan-Meier method was used for univariate and multivariate statistical analysis to assess the relationship between p53, Bcl-2 and clinico-hematologic feature with respect to overall survival (OS) using SPSS statistical software. No statistical significance was found in univariate analysis (P=0.60). However, when the subgroups of patients (+1, +2, +3 and +4) were compared, expression of p53 and Bcl-2 protein (1–10%, 11–30%, 31–50% and >50%) was statistically significant (P<0.05). However, in multivariate analysis, p53, immunopositivity was independently associated with a shorter overall survival (OS) (P=0.038) while Bcl-2 immunopositivity was associated with longer overall survival (OS) (P=0.002). Our finding shows that p53 and Bcl-2 protein overexpression is a strong indicator of response to chemotherapy and overall survival. This study reports for the first time AML in patients from Eastern India.