الفهرس 
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia/LymphomaOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Background: Acute lymphoblastic leukemia/Lymphoma (ALL) is a malig¬nant disorder of lymphoid progenitor cells char¬acterized by diverse cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities. Constitute activation of Btk signalling has been implicated in the pathogenesis of certain B cell malignancies. Following BCR stimulation, Btk, together with other compo¬nents of the BCR signalosome, activates NF-κB. The activated NF-κB then translocates into the nucleus and binds to the target gene promoter to induce transcription. Dysfunction of NF-κB is associated with a varie¬ty of malignancies, such as lympho¬ma and leukemia. Overexpression of activated Btk enhances the potential transformation of normal cells to tumor cells. Previously reported that both Btk and NF-κB expression levels are upreg¬ulated in leukemia cells of acute myeloid leuke¬mia, however, their significance in ALL are unknown.
Aim of the work: aims to evaluate the expression of Btk and NF-κB genes in pediatric B-ALL patients and to assess their roles as diagnostic markers.
Patients and Methods: A total of 40 de novo B-ALL pediatric patients attending to Ain shams pediatric hospital or National Cancer Institute (NCI), were enrolled for assessment of Btk and NF-κB genes expression using RT-PCR at diagnosis.
Results: Receiver operating characteristic curve (ROC) curve analysis was used to determine the performance of Btk and NF-κB expression in diagnosis of B-ALL. Btk gene expression at cut-off value > 0.441 was able to discriminate ALL patients from healthy controls with 95% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 75% negative predictive value (NPV), 100% positive predictive value (PPV) [AUC =0.983]. While NF-κB gene expression at a cut-off value >0.662 was able to discriminate ALL patients from healthy controls with 77.5% sensitivity, 100% specificity, 40% negative predictive value (NPV), 100% positive predictive value (PPV) [AUC =0.858].
Conclusion: Btk and NF-κB genes were variably expressed through all studied cases and there was a significant higher expression of the two genes in newly diagnosed.