Meta-analysis of gene expression in relapsed childhood B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia

摘要

BackgroundRelapsed pediatric B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) remains as the leading cause of cancer death among children. Other than stem cell transplantation and intensified chemotherapy, no other improved treatment strategies have been approved clinically. Gene expression profiling represents a powerful approach to identify potential biomarkers and new therapeutic targets for various diseases including leukemias. However, inadequate sample size in many individual experiments has failed to provide adequate study power to yield translatable findings. With the hope of getting new insights into the biological mechanisms underpinning relapsed ALL and identifying more promising biomarkers or therapeutic targets, we conducted a meta-analysis of gene expression studies involving ALL from 3 separate studies.