Aberrant Phenotypes in Acute Myeloid Leukemia and Its Relationship with Prognosis and Survival: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The aim of this review was to evaluate the influence of aberrant phenotypes in prognosis and survival in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients by multiparametric flow cytometry.

Following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, a review of PubMed, Scopus, Science Direct and Web of Science was carried out through 1998 to 2016, conducted by two reviewers independently, evaluating titles, abstracts and full-texts of the selected studies.

Ten studies were included on this review, in which the aberrant phenotype expression of 17 markers were detected in AML patients. From these, 11 aberrant phenotypes were associated with prognosis, which eight had shown negative impact on prognosis: CD7, CD56, CD15, CD2, CD3, CD90low, CD123high, CD117high, and three others were associated with good prognosis: CD19, CD98high and CD117+/CD15+. Meta-analysis showed that aberrant expression of CD56 as a poor prognostic marker with unfavorable outcomes is implicated in decreased overall survival in AML patients in 28 months (95% CI: 0.62 to 0.92).

This was observed when there was association between CD56 expression and other prognostic factors, influencing on patients’ management care and treatment.