Association of CD49d expression with clinicopathological features of chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients in the Iranian population.

Background: Identification of factors affecting prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is important for risk stratification of patients.

Methods: In the present study, CD49d expression was analyzed by multi-color flow cytometry in 98 newly diagnosed and untreated CLL patients at the hematopathology ward. The patients were divided into two subgroups according to CD49d expression (30% cut off) and the association of this marker with the patients' clinicopathological properties were evaluated.

Results: In this study, CD49d expression exhibited significant association with the Rai stage of the disease (P<0.0001), CD38 status (P<0.0001), hemoglobin level (P=0.0006), and platelet count (P=0.0016). The CD49d-positive patients presented in higher stages in comparison with CD49d-negative patients. Although only 1% of the CD49d-negative patients were CD38-positive, this proportion for CD49d-positive group was 69%. However, no significant correlation was observed between CD49d expression and patients' age (P=0.2031), gender (P=0.8119), and absolute lymphocytes count (P=0.1073).

Conclusion: Therefore, CD49d is a grateful biomarker with high association with clinicopathological parameters in CLL patients.