The sensitivity of the FLT3-ITD detection method is an important consideration when diagnosing acute myeloid leukemia

Masahiro Sakaguchi; Nana Nakajima; Hiroki Yamaguchi; Yuho Najima; Katsuhiro Shono; Atsushi Marumo; Ikuko Omori; Yusuke Fujiwara; Kazuki Terada; Shunsuke Yui; Satoshi Wakita; Miho Mitaya; Kunihito Arai; Tomoaki Kitano; Noriko Doki; Kazuteru Ohashi; Koiti Inokuchi

doi:10.1016/j.lrr.2020.100198

The sensitivity of the FLT3-ITD detection method is an important consideration when diagnosing acute myeloid leukemia

Leuk Res Rep. 2020 Apr 19:13:100198. doi: 10.1016/j.lrr.2020.100198. eCollection 2020.

Authors

Masahiro Sakaguchi¹, Nana Nakajima¹, Hiroki Yamaguchi¹, Yuho Najima², Katsuhiro Shono³, Atsushi Marumo¹, Ikuko Omori¹, Yusuke Fujiwara¹, Kazuki Terada¹, Shunsuke Yui¹, Satoshi Wakita¹, Miho Mitaya¹, Kunihito Arai¹, Tomoaki Kitano¹, Noriko Doki², Kazuteru Ohashi², Koiti Inokuchi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Hematology, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan.
² Hematology Division, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center, Komagome Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.
³ Department of Hematology, Chiba Aoba Municipal Hospital, Chiba, Japan.

Abstract

Fms-like tyrosine kinase 3-internal tandem duplication (FLT3-ITD) is a key predictive factor for the prognosis of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). We compared the detection sensitivity of fragment analysis with that of PCR-electrophoresis using MV4-11 (FLT3-ITD) and NKM-1 (FLT3-wild type) cell lines. DNA of these cells was mixed at different ratios and subjected to PCR-electrophoresis or fragment analysis. PCR-electrophoresis was found to have an FLT3-ITD allelic ratio (AR) detection limit of 0.034-0.072. Visual inspection of the PCR-electrophoresis revealed a lower detection sensitivity than that of fragment analysis. Therefore, it is essential to conduct fragment analysis when screening for FLT3-ITD.

Keywords: Acute myeloid leukemia; Allelic ratio; Detection method; FLT3-ITD; Sensitivity.