Hyaluronan-Mediated Motility Receptor (HMMR) Overexpression Is Correlated with Poor Survival in Patients with B-ALL

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a malignant neoplasm with the highest incidence in the pediatric population. Although the 5-year overall survival is greater than 85%, in emerging countries such as Mexico, the mortality rate is high. In Mexico, B-ALL is the most common type of childhood cancer; different characteristics suggest the presence of the disease; however, the prognosis is dependent on clinical and laboratory features, and no adverse prognostic molecular marker for B-ALL has yet been identified. The present research aimed to identify the prognostic value of HMMR expression in pediatric patients with B-ALL. The differential expression profile of B-ALL cells was determined via in silico analysis, and HMMR expression was subsequently measured via qRT-PCR and immunocytochemistry. The results were statistically analyzed via the ROUT test, Kolmogorov-Smirnov Z test, and Mann-Whitney U test. ROC curves and the Youden index were constructed, and Kaplan-Meier curves were plotted. We found that HMMR expression was increased in B-ALL patients (<i>p</i> < 0.0001). We observed that high expression was related to poor prognosis (<i>p</i> < 0.05). We observed that high expression was related to poor prognosis (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The increase in HMMR expression could be a potential early molecular prognostic marker and/or a new target in childhood B-ALL patients.