Clinical Significance of CD69 Expression In Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

Abstract 3574 Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL) is a very heterogeneous disease with some patients experiencing rapid disease progression and others living for years without requiring treatment and therefore it is mandatory to find new prognostic markers. CD69 overexpression which resembles B cells at an earlier and greater state of activation (Damle, 2002 and 2007) and induces increased proliferation and survival of leukemic B-lymphocytes, may reflect an aggressive and progressive clinical outcome. The primary endpoints of our research were: 1) to determine progression free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) upon CD69 in univariate analysis; 2) to correlate CD69 with other clinical or biological prognostic factors such as age, Rai stages, lymphocyte doubling time, beta-2 microglobulin, CD38, CD49d, ZAP-70, cytogenetics by FISH and IgVH status and finally, 3) to confirm CD69 as an independent prognostic factor. We investigated 417 patients (pts), median age 66 years (range 33–89), 239 males and 178 females. With regard to modified Rai stages, 127 pts had a low stage, 272 an intermediate stage and 18 a high stage. CD69 was determined by multicolor flow cytometry, fixing the cut-off value at 30%. CD69+ pts were 111/417 (26.6%). CD69 12 months (260/337; P=0.0006), beta-2 microglobulin or Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.