Silencing of GATA3 defines a novel stem cell like subgroup of ETP-ALL

Genome wide expression profiling was used to detect cases of adult T-ALL lacking GATA3 expression. GATA3low T-ALL exhibited enrichment of myeloid/lymphoid progenitor (MLP) and granulocyte/monocyte progenitor (GMP) genes, while T-cell specific signatures were downregulated. Among upregulated genes FLT3 was identified and mutational analyses revealed a high rate of FLT3 mutations. Analysis of 83 samples of bone marrow mononuclear cells (39x HGU-133 2.0 plus chip; 44x HGU-133 A&B Set) from adult patients with acute T-cell lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL)