Long non-coding RNA profiling carries predictive value in younger adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to a study involving more than 400 individuals.

Participants were <60 years of age and had newly-diagnosed cytogenetically normal AML. Investigators performed whole transcriptome profiling in training (n=263) and validation (n=114) sets. They derived a prognostic score from the training set using 24 long non-coding RNAs linked with event-free survival. Among the results in the validation cohort:

• Patients with high scores had shorter disease-free, overall, and event-free survival than those with low scores.
• Long non-coding RNA score status independently predicted disease-free and event-free survival.
• Only double CEBPA and NPM1 mutations, as well as FLT3-ITD, were linked with distinct long non-coding RNA signatures.
• Correlating long non-coding RNA scores with messenger RNA and microRNA expression identified enrichment of genes involved in lymphocyte/leukocyte activation, inflammation, and apoptosis in patients with high scores.