Rapid detection of prognostically important childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia chimeric transcripts using multiplex SYBR green real-time reverse transcription PCR

Childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is a heterogenous disease in which oncogene fusion transcripts are known to influence the biological behaviour of the different ALL subtypes. Screening for prognostically important transcripts is an important diagnostic step in treatment stratification and prognostication of affected patients. We describe a SYBR-Green real-time multiplex PCR assay to screen for transcripts TEL-AML1, E2A-PBX1, MLL-AF4, and the two breakpoints of BCR-ABL (p190 and p210). Validation of the assay was based on conventional karyotyping results. This new assay provides a rapid, sensitive, and accurate detection method for prognostically important transcripts in childhood ALL.