Studying Biomarkers as a Diagnostic Tool in Samples From Younger Patients With B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

STUDY SUBTYPE: Ancillary/Correlative

OBSERVATIONAL STUDY MODEL: Case-only

TIME PERSPECTIVE: Retrospective

BIOSPECIMEN RETENTION: Samples with DNA

BIOSPECIMEN DESCRIPTION: Fresh and frozen bone marrow cells

STUDY POPULATION DESCRIPTION: Patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic samples banked at the COG Cell Bank

SAMPLING METHOD: Non-probability sample

OBJECTIVES:

I. To determine whether we can identify individuals within a specific sub-group of pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) patients that will eventually recur.

II. To identify replication-timing changes as a biomarker for further risk prediction.

III. To identify differences between patients of similar subtype, and choose candidate differences to analyze by methods that are compatible with frozen samples.

OUTLINE:

Archived cell samples are analyzed for replication timing by flow cytometry, microarray, and single-cell fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays. Replication-timing results among cases and controls are also analyzed.

Inclusion criteria

• Frozen viable cell samples from patients with B-cell acute lymphoblastic (ALL) of any outcome from the Children's Oncology Group (COG) ALL Cell Bank (Part 1)
• Freshand frozen cell samples from patients with B-cell ALL with known outcomes from the COG ALL Cell Bank (Part 2) meeting 1 of the following criteria:

• Samples from patients who experienced an early recurrence within 36 months of diagnosis (cases)
• Samples from patients who remain in prolonged remission (controls)
• No samples meeting either of the following criteria:

• Very-high-risk features

• Philadelphia chromosome positive
• Hypodiploid
• MLL (11q23) rearranged
• Known favorable risk factors

• Hyperdiploid
• t(12;21) (ETV6/RUNX1)