A multicenter study on the revalidation of validated conversion factor for the conversion of BCRABL（P210）transcript levels to the international scale in chronic myeloid leukemia

Objective: To revalidate the conversion factor（CF）for the conversion of BCR-ABL （P210）transcript levels to the international scale（BCR- ABLIS）in chronic myeloid leukemia（CML） which validated before.

Methods: Peking University People's Hospital（PKUPH）prepared the exchange samples for revalidation of CFs of 15 laboratories which validated nine or eighteen months ago. The fresh BCR-ABL（P210）（+）bone morrow or peripheral blood nucleated cells were diluted with BCR-ABL （P210）（-）cells to achieve different BCR- ABL levels, totally 16 sets and 24 samples per set were prepared. TRIzol reagent was added in each tube. Each laboratory tested BCR-ABL transcript levels of one set of samples. Agreement between BCR-ABLIS of each laboratory and PKUPH was assessed by the Bland- Altman method. For laboratories which did not meet the criteria of revalidation, linear regression equation was derived after the samples with maximum BCR-ABL deviation were removed until R²>0.98, then new CF was calculated.

Results: 10 laboratories met the revalidation criteria with both bias within ±1.4 fold and 95% limits of agreement within ±6 folds, and their CFs still could be used for accurately conversion of BCR-ABLIS. New CFs were recalculated as of 1.8-6.3 folds of their previous CFs in 5 laboratories not met the criteria.

Conclusions: Revalidation of CF by sample exchange among laboratories was necessary for accurate and continuous application of BCR-ABLIS, which not only tested the validity of CF acquired before but also calculated new available CFs for those with invalid CFs.