Study of Proteins in Promoting Chemotherapy Resistance in Samples From Patients With Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Identifying Stat3-Dependent Chemotherapy Resistance Pathways in Relapsed AML

RATIONALE: Studying samples of tissue from patients with cancer in the laboratory may help doctors learn more about cancer and development of drug resistance in patients.

PURPOSE: This research trial is studying proteins that may promote chemotherapy resistance in samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia.

OBJECTIVES:

• Investigate whether changes in prosurvival signaling occur by comparing activation of the signal transducer and activator of transcription-3 (Stat3) and Stat5 pathways in paired diagnostic and relapse samples.
• Investigate changes in leukemia cell responses to extrinsic cues from the environment change, using a bone marrow stromal-cell co-culture model of chemotherapy resistance.

OUTLINE: Cryopreserved samples are analyzed for Stat3 and Stat5 expression by flow cytometry and in vitro chemotherapy sensitivity.

DISEASE CHARACTERISTICS:

• Paired diagnostic and relapsed cryopreserved samples from patients with acute myeloid leukemia

PATIENT CHARACTERISTICS:

• Not specified

PRIOR CONCURRENT THERAPY:

• Not specified