Key clinical point: Increased accumulation of unconventional CD56 −CD16+ natural killer (NK) cells in patients with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) was associated with poor clinical outcomes.
Major finding: Accumulation of CD56 −CD16+ NK cells, representing up to 80.8% of total NK cells, was observed in 27.1% of patients with AML. Overall survival (hazard ratio [HR], 0.13; P less than .001) and event-free survival (HR, 0.33; P less than .05) were significantly reduced in patients with high CD56 −CD16+ vs. patients with conventional NK cell profile.
Study details: This study conducted deep phenotyping of NK cells using peripheral blood from 48 patients with newly diagnosed nonacute promyelocytic leukemia AML and 18 healthy control participants.
Disclosures: This work was supported by grants from the Institut National du Cancer, Fondation de France, Sites de Recherche Intégrée sur le Cancer Marseille, Cancéropôle Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Groupement d’intérêt scientifique-Infrastructures pour la Biologie, la Santé et l’Agronomie, and Agence Nationale de la Recherche. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
Source: Chretien AS et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2021 May 28. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2020459118 .