We also investigated the BCL2/BAX and BCL2/PUMA ratios as apoptotic responders to treatment at the different time points for each of the patients, and found a significant increase in gene expression of the apoptosis facilitators PUMA and BAX (Additional File 2) and a decrease in the BCL2/BAX ratio as well as BCL2/PUMA for most of the AML samples (0 versus 4 h p-values < 0.0004, 0 versus 18 h p-values < 0.01, 4 versus 18 h p-values 0.5 and 0.2, respectively) (Figure 2A,B). This evidence concerns the gene BAX and acute myeloid leukemia.