Prognostic Significance of Comprehensive Gene Mutations and Clinical Characteristics in Adult T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Based on Next-Generation Sequencing

Background: Adult T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a heterogeneous malignant tumor with poor prognosis. However, accurate prognostic stratification factors are still unclear.

Methods: Data from 90 adult T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia/lymphoma (T-ALL/LBL) patients were collected. The association of gene mutations detected by next-generation sequencing and clinical characteristics with the outcomes of T-ALL/LBL patients were retrospectively analyzed to build three novel risk stratification models through Cox proportional hazards model.

Results: Forty-seven mutated genes were identified. Here, 73.3% of patients had at least one mutation, and 36.7% had ≥3 mutations. The genes with higher mutation frequency were , , and . The most frequently altered signaling pathways were NOTCH pathway, transcriptional regulation pathway, and DNA methylation pathway. Age (45 years old), platelet (PLT) (50 G/L), actate dehydrogenase (LDH) (600 U/L), response in D19-BMR detection, TP53 and cell cycle signaling pathway alterations, and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) were integrated into a risk stratification model of event-free survival (EFS). Age (45 years old), white blood cell (WBC) count (30 G/L), response in D19-BMR detection, TP53 and cell cycle signaling pathway alterations, and HSCT were integrated into a risk stratification model of overall survival (OS). According to our risk stratification models, the 1-year EFS and OS rates in the low-risk group were significantly higher than those in the high-risk group.

Conclusions: Our risk stratification models exhibited good prognostic roles in adult T-ALL/LBL patients and might guide individualized treatment and ultimately improve their outcomes.