Method of prognosing the clinical course of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL)

摘要

The present invention relates to a method of prognosing whether a patient afflicted with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) develops an aggressive or an indolent clinical course of CLL comprising determining the expression levels of IgD and IgM in a sample obtained from said patient and employing the ratio of IgD and IgM expression levels as an indicator for predicting whether said patient develops an aggressive or an indolent clinical course of CLL. In a preferred embodiment of the method of the invention, a ratio of an expression level of IgD vs. IgM ≤ 1.15 is indicative of the patient developing an aggressive clinical course of CLL. In a different preferred embodiment of the method of the invention, a ratio of an expression level of IgD vs. IgM 1.15 is indicative of the patient developing an indolent clinical course of CLL.