Leuk Res  1997 Aug;21(8):697-701 

Mutations of the RAS genes in childhood acute myeloid leukemia, myelodysplastic
syndrome and juvenile chronic myelocytic leukemia.

Sheng XM, Kawamura M, Ohnishi H, Ida K, Hanada R, Kojima S, Kobayashi M, Bessho
F, Yanagisawa M, Hayashi Y.

Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, Japan.

Using the polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism
method and direct sequencing, 12 acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cell lines and 108
fresh childhood myeloid tumor specimens, including 67 AML, 29 myelodysplastic
syndrome (MDS), and 12 juvenile chronic myelocytic leukemia (JCML) were examined
for mutation in H-, K-, and N-RAS genes. The mutation was found in eight of the
120 samples (6.7%), which consisted of four cell lines (33.3%) and four fresh
myeloid tumors (3.7%). The frequency of the mutation in the cell lines was
apparently higher than that in fresh myeloid tumors. K-RAS gene mutations were
found in two of the 67 fresh AML specimens (3%). Interestingly, these two
patients had 11q23 translocations. The N-RAS gene mutation was found in one of
the 29 specimens (3.4%) of MDS and in one of the 12 specimens (8.3%) of JCML.
All mutations were found in codon 12, 13 or 61 of the N-RAS and K-RAS genes.
Frequency of mutation of RAS genes in fresh myeloid malignancies was very low.
These findings suggest that mutation of RAS genes does not play an important
role in the development of childhood myeloid malignancies.

PMID: 9379676 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]