Molecular Involvement and Prognostic Importance of Fms-like Tyrosine Kinase 3 in Acute Myeloid Leukemia

Abstract

AML (Acute myeloid leukemia) is a form of blood cancer where growth of myeloid cells occurs in the bonemarrow. The prognosis is poor in general for many reasons. One is the presence of leukaemia-specific recognitionmarkers such as FLT3 (fms-like tyrosine kinase 3). Another name of FLT3 is stem cell tyrosine kinase-1 (STK1),which is known to take part in proliferation, differentiation and apoptosis of hematopoietic cells, usually beingpresent on haemopoietic progenitor cells in the bone marrow. FLT3 act as an independent prognostic factor forAML. Although a vast literature is available about the association of FLT3 with AML there still is a need of abrief up to date overview which draw a clear picture about this association and their effect on overall survival.