Influence of high expression of Smac/DIABLO protein on the clinical outcome in acute myeloid leukemia patients

Abstract The role of the Smac/DIABLO protein, a novel apoptosis agonist, in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is not clearly determined. The expression of Smac/DIABLO protein in AML leukemic cells and its relationship with clinical outcome was evaluated in this study. The intracellular expression of Smac/DIABLO protein was assessed using multi-color flow cytometry in 71 newly diagnosed AML patients treated with conventional chemotherapy. It was found that the high expression of Smac/DIABLO protein was an independent prognostic factor in terms of higher complete remission rate ( p < 0.001) and longer overall survival ( p = 0.003). Moreover the low expression of Smac/DIABLO protein was associated with poor karyotype.