A research team from National Taiwan University (NTU) and its hospital said they have identified gene markers — three microRNAs and 11 genes — from blood acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients which could be used to predict patients’ survival rate after treatment.
The team, led by NTU Hospital Section of Hematology-Oncology physician Tien Hwei-fang (田蕙芬) and NTU Institute of Biomedical Electronics and Information Research professor Eric Chuang (莊曜宇), used high-throughput biochip technology to analyze the gene expression profiles of almost 300 AML patients.
Tien said the usual treatment for leukemia is chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant for high-risk groups, but sometimes complications occur after treatment, so it is important to discover gene markers that could help predict survival rates after treatment with precision before determining treatment methods and drug doses.
SURVIVAL PREDICTORS
Chung said about 800 AML patients are diagnosed in Taiwan every year and searching through hundreds of microRNAs and tens of thousands of genes, the team was able to identify three microRNAs and 11 genes that could serve as predictors of survival risks.
The team developed a scoring system to allow them to classify AML patients into high-risk or low-risk groups, before determining the best treatment for them, he said.
“For every genetic predictor point scored, the patient’s risk of dying is increased by 2.1 times,” Chung said.
He said the technology is now being used in a research project conducted at NTU Hospital, in which AML patients can pay between NT$1,000 and NT$2,000 to get their results within two to three hours, and that hopefully the technology could be further developed for “rapid screening” of other types of cancer.
However, the team said because a large-scale clinical trial is required, it estimates that the technology could take three to five years to be widely introduced.
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