Cell cycle genes co-expression in multiple myeloma and plasma cell leukemia

•Co-expression of activator and inhibitor gene sets is in dynamic equilibrium.•Inhibitor gene set is more sensitive to the activators changes, not vice versa.•CDKN2A overexpression is associated with shorter OS in newly diagnosed MM patients.•CDKN2A overexpression is associated with shorter TTP in MM patients.

The objective of this study was to describe co-expression correlations of cell cycle regulatory genes in multiple myeloma (MM) and plasma cell leukemia (PCL).Our results highlight the presence of dynamic equilibrium between co-expression of activator and inhibitor gene sets. Moreover inhibitor set is more sensitive to the activator changes, not vice versa. We have shown that CDKN2A expression is associated with short-term survival in newly diagnosed MM patients (survival was 30.3 ± 3.9 months for 'low' expressed and 7.5 ± 5.6 months for 'high' expressed group, p < 0.0001). Moreover low-expression CDKN2A group showed time-to-progression benefit in newly diagnosed patients (remission was 20.8 ± 3.6 months for 'low' and 8.4 ± 2.7 months for 'high' expressed group, p < 0.0001) as well as in whole studied cohort of MM patients (remission was 20.8 ± 2.8 months for 'low' and 9.8 ± 1.1 months for 'high' expressed group, p < 0.0001). The overexpression of inhibitors can be explained as a compensatory reaction to growing “oncogenic stress”.