Overexpression of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP) is an independent unfavorable prognostic factor in childhood de novo acute myeloid leukemia

The overexpression of X-linked inhibitor of apoptosis protein (XIAP), a member of IAP family protein, is intuitively expected to be associated with unfavorable clinical features in malignancies; however, there have been only a very limited number of studies reporting the clinical relevance of XIAP expression. This study was performed to investigate the prognostic relevance of XIAP expression in childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML). In 53 children with de novo AML, the level of XIAP expression was determined by using quantitative reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction and was analyzed with respect to the clinical characteristics at diagnosis and treatment outcomes. As a result, the XIAP expression was found to be higher in patients with extramedullary disease than in those without (P=0.014). In addition, XIAP overexpression (>or=median expression) was associated with an unfavorable day 7 response to induction chemotherapy and also associated with a worse 3-yr relapsefree survival rate (52.7+/-20.9% vs. 85.9+/-14.8%, P=0.014). Multivariate analyses revealed that XIAP overexpression was an independent unfavorable prognostic factor for relapse-free survival (hazard ratio, 6.16; 95% confidence interval, 1.48-25.74; P=0.013). Collectively, XIAP overexpression may be used as an unfavorable prognostic marker in childhood AML.