Aim: To determine clinical significance of PRAME gene expression in multiple myeloma (MM) and feasibility of its use as a marker of residual tumor clone.
Material and methods: 35 MM patients, of them 15 were newly diagnosed and 20 had resistance to previous therapy. PRAME was made if the patients received programmed therapy with high-dose chemotherapy (VD) and autologous transplantation of peripheral cell stem cells. 12 PRAME-positive patients were examined on the day +100, 5 patients--a year later. Monoclonal paraprotein was detected by electrophoresis and radial immunodiffusion of blood serum. Bone marrow affection was assessed at roentgenography and/or MRI. PRAME gene expression in bone marrow biopsy was measured by reverse transcription and PCR amplification.
Results: Activation of expression of PRAME gene in MM was found in 68.57% patients. It was higher in patients with MM duration more than 1 year and if they were treated before (85%) than in new cases (46.67%). Expression of PRAME tended to associate with activity of LDP of blood serum. After the above chemotherapy and autotransplantation transcript PRAME did not disappear in 8 of 12 cases. One year after the treatment, of 5 PRAME-positive patients 2 died, 1 had recurrence, 2 are in a compete clinicohematological remission.
Conclusion: Frequent activation of transcription of the gene PRAME in MM, its assay can be used for monitoring of the disease course, assessment of remission completeness, detection of tumor cell contamination of preparations of autologous stem cells of peripheral blood.