Clinical Significance of CD200 and CD56 Expression in Patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia

BACKGROUND: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) escape from immunosurveillance by immunosuppression. CD200 and CD56 expression represented an independent prognostic factor in many hematological malignancies but its importance in AML patients remains to be identified. METHODS: CD200 and CD56 expression were assessed in the bone marrow blasts for Fifty-two (52) newly diagnosed AML by flowcytometry before start of therapy. RESULTS: CD200 (+) expression was reported in 28.8% of patients while 17.3% of patients showed CD56(+) expression. M4 FAB revealed high frequency of both CD200(+) and CD56(+) expression. The overall survival of CD200(+) patients was 19.2% compared to 35.3% in CD200(-) (P= 0.049). On the other hand, CD56(+) patients had the lowest complete remission rate (22.2% vs. 53.4%). In addition, CD56(+) population had significant bad influence on overall survival than those of CD56(- )population (11.1 % vs. 35.5 %, P= 0.047). CONCLUSIONS: CD200 and CD56 positive expression by myeloblasts at diagnosis denote poor prognostic indicator and correlated with poor cytogenetic findings. CD200 could be used as therapeutic target in AML.