Expression of inhibitor of apoptosis protein (IAP) livin/BIRC7 in acute leukemia in adults: correlation with prognostic factors and outcome.

The clinical relevance of livin/BIRC7 expression is still controversial in different types of malignancies, therefore this study was designed to evaluate the gene expression of livin in Egyptian adult AML and ALL. Livin expression level was higher in patients with unfavorable prognostic factors at diagnosis in both ALL (p=0.002) and AML (p=0.042) and its level was negatively correlated with event free survival (EFS) and overall survival (OS) in both ALL (p<0.001for both) and AML (p=0.001 and 0.023 respectively). This study suggests that livin expression is a novel prognostic marker in adult acute leukemia and thus needs to be incorporated into the patient stratification and treatment protocols.