Translocation t(12;21) is related to in vitro cellular drug sensitivity to doxorubicin and etoposide in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The t(12;21) (p13;q22) translocation resulting in ETV6/RUNX1 (previously named TEL/AML1) gene fusion is present in about 25% of children with precursor B-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). We successfully tested 275 precursor B-ALL samples from children aged 1 to 17 years to determine the relation between t(12;21) and in vitro cellular drug resistance, measured by the fluorometric microculture cytotoxicity assay (FMCA). Samples from 83 patients (30%) were positive for t(12;21). The ETV6/RUNX1(+) samples were significantly more sensitive than ETV6/RUNX1(-) samples to doxorubicin, etoposide, amsacrine, and dexamethasone, whereas the opposite was true for cytarabine. After matching for unevenly distributed patient characteristics, that is, excluding patients with high hyperdiploidy (> 51 chromosomes), t(9; 22), t(1;19), or 11q23 rearrangement, the ETV6/RUNX1(+) samples remained significantly more sensitive to doxorubicin (P = .001) and etoposide (P = .001). For the other drugs tested (amsacrine, cytarabine, dexamethasone, prednisolone, vincristine, 6-thioguanine, and 4-hydroperoxy-cyclophosphamide), no significant difference in cellular drug sensitivity was found. In conclusion, we found that the presence of the t(12;21) translocation in childhood precursor B-ALL is associated with a high tumor cell sensitivity to doxorubicin and etoposide. High throughput techniques should now be used to elucidate the cellular mechanisms by which ETV6/RUNX1 gene fusion is linked to increased sensitivity to these drugs.