Progressive Loss of Phenotypic Proteins in Mature Granulocytes Before the Onset of Blast Crisis in Human Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia1

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Abstract
A combined high-performance liquid chromatography-sodium dodecyl sulfate-gel electrophoresis method for the study of the phenotypic protein patterns of mature blood granulocytes was previously described. With the use of this method in the present study, the progression of human chronic myelogenous leukemja (CML) from the stable to the blast crisis stage was shown to be accompanied by a progressive decrease in the amounts of cell membrane and granule phenotypic proteins in mature granulocytes. Survival time from the initial diagnosis was significantly shorter for CML patients whose levels of granulocyte phenotypic proteins were below the normal range compared with survival time for those patients whose levels were normal or higher than normal. The data suggest that these changes in mature granulocytes serve as useful diagnostic indicators of an impending blast crisis in CML patients. [J Natl cancer Inst 1988;80:251–257]