Blood. 2001 Jul 1;98(1):181-6.  Comment in: Blood. 2002 Aug 1;100(3):1106. CD38 expression as an important prognostic factor in B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Ibrahim S, Keating M, Do KA, O'Brien S, Huh YO, Jilani I, Lerner S, Kantarjian HM, Albitar M. Department of Hematopathology, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX, USA. CD38 is a transmembrane glycoprotein expressed on the surface of leukemic cells in a significant percentage of patients with B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (B-CLL). A recent study suggested that CD38 expression has prognostic value in CLL. Peripheral blood samples from 218 patients with B-CLL were analyzed by flow cytometry for CD38 expression on CD5/19(+) leukemic cells. Various patient characteristics were studied including age, sex, Rai and Binet stages, splenomegaly, hepatomegaly, hemoglobin (Hgb) level, beta-2 microglobulin (beta2M) level in the serum, number of nodal sites involved with disease, and length of survival. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to construct survival curves, and the log-rank statistic was used to compare these curves. CD38 was expressed in 20% or more of leukemic cells in 43% of the patients. Patients with high CD38 expression (20% or more) had significantly shorter survival times (P =.00005). Multivariate analyses showed that CD38 expression is an important prognostic factor associated with high incidence of lymph node involvement (P =.004), lower hemoglobin level (P =.001), hepatomegaly (P =.05), and high beta2M level (P =.00005). CD38 expression identified a group of patients with aggressive disease that was considered by Rai staging to be early-stage disease (Rai stages 0-II). Patients with CD38(+) samples have significantly aggressive disease regardless of their clinical stage. Measurement of CD38 expression by flow cytometry should become a routine test in the evaluation of patients with CLL. PMID: 11418478 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]