Association of small ubiquitin-like modifier-specific protease 2 with induction treatment response and survival in acute myeloid leukemia patients

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous hematological malignancy with variable responses to induction therapy. Small ubiquitin-like modifier-specific protease 2 (SENP2), a regulator of SUMOylation, has been implicated in cancer biology, but its clinical significance in AML remains unclear. In this retrospective study, SENP2 expression was measured in pretreatment bone marrow samples from 97 newly diagnosed AML patients and 25 controls by quantitative PCR. SENP2 expression was significantly decreased in AML patients and was associated with higher bone marrow blast burden. Patients achieving complete remission (CR) after induction therapy showed higher SENP2 expression than non-responders. Multivariate logistic regression demonstrated that increased SENP2 expression was independently associated with CR achievement, whereas SENP2 expression was not significantly associated with event-free survival or overall survival. Public database analyses further confirmed reduced SENP2 expression in AML. These findings suggest that SENP2 may represent a potential biomarker for predicting induction treatment response in AML.