Expression of P-Glycoprotein and BCL2 in Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia and Disseminated Non-Hodgkin s Lymphoma

Drug resistance is considered to be the major cause of failure of anticancer therapy in patients with malignancy, negative regulator of apoptosis such as BCL2 have also been considered. The aim of this work is to evaluate P-gp and BCL2 expression level and its significant prognostic value in acutelymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and disseminated non-Hodgkin lymphoma (D-NHL). Peripheral blood mononuclear cells from newly diagnosed cases (30 ALL, 30 D-NHL) and 20 healthy control subjects were collected. Immunohistochemical staining of mononuclear cells using BCL2, P-glycoprotein (P- gp) monoclonal antibodies. A Statistically significant increase of P-gp and BCL2 expression on malignant cells was found in ALL and D-NHL cases compared to the normal control. No statistical significant difference in BCL2 or P-gp expression in different immunopenotypic patterns, different FAB subtypes of ALL cases or different pathological types or grades of D-NHL cases. A significant statistical correlation was found between the level of BCL2 and P-gp expression and decreased disease free survivaf(DFS) and over all survival (OS) in NHL and ALL cases. Conclusion: Assessment of multi drug resistance mechanisms based on both P-gp and BCL2 expression level is suggested to be an important predictor of treatment outcome in ALL and D-NHL cases.