Background & objective: Mucin 1 (MUC1) gene is expressed in various tumors, and overexpressed in acute leukemia. This study was to evaluate the expression of MUC1 gene and multidrug-resistance protein-1 (MDR1) gene in non-M3 subtype acute leukemia and their correlations to clinical treatment efficacy.
Methods: The expression of MUC1 and MDR1 genes were measured in 34 patients with non-M3 subtype acute leukemia by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR); their correlations to clinical treatment efficacy were observed.
Results: The positive rate of MUC1 gene in the 34 patients was 50.0%, and the positive rate of MDR1 gene was 29.4%. The positive rate of MDR1 was significantly higher in MUC1-positive patients than in MUC1-negative patients (52.9% vs. 5.9%, P=0.003). Complete remission (CR) rate was significantly higher in MUC1-negative patients than in MUC1-positive patients (94.1% vs. 52.9%, P<0.01). CR rate was significantly higher in MDR1-negative patients than in MDR1-positive patients (91.7% vs. 50.0%, P<0.05). In 9 patients with positive expression of both MUC1 and MDR1, the CR rate was 55.6%; while in 16 patients with negative expression of both MUC1 and MDR1, the CR rate was 100%.
Conclusions: The non-M3 subtype acute leukemia patients with positive expression of MUC1 have high positive rate of MDR1. The patients with negative expression of both MUC1 and MDR1 have high CR. Co-detection of MUC1 gene and MDR1 gene can predict treatment efficacy on non-M3 subtype acute leukemia.