Purpose of review
Clinical and experimental studies have uncovered relevant clinical implications of clonal hematopoiesis. However, the true magnitude of this process, clonal dynamics over time and ...mechanisms of progression into overt malignancy remain to be largely elucidated. In this article, the consequences of clonal hematopoiesis, its significance in the context of cytopenia, and its implications in the clinical management of patients with myeloid malignancies are reviewed and discussed.
Recent findings
Clonal hematopoiesis has been associated with higher risk of hematologic cancers, as well as of death from cardiovascular causes. Clonal hematopoiesis has been proven clinically relevant in the context of disorders characterized by peripheral blood cytopenia, including aplastic anemia, cytopenia of undetermined significance, as well as unexplained anemia of the elderly.
Summary
The available evidence has been proving the utility of somatic mutational analysis in patients with unexplained cytopenia, as well as in those receiving a diagnosis of myeloid neoplasm, enabling more accurate diagnosis, risk assessment, effective therapeutic strategies and residual disease monitoring. The access to a minimally invasive assessment is paving the way for screening programs of clonal hematopoiesis in individuals with absent or mild hematologic phenotype, as well as for therapeutic targeting of preleukemia cells.
Unexplained blood cytopenias, in particular anemia, are often found in older persons. The relationship between these cytopenias and myeloid neoplasms like myelodysplastic syndromes is currently ...poorly defined. We studied a prospective cohort of patients with unexplained cytopenia with the aim to estimate the predictive value of somatic mutations for identifying subjects with, or at risk of, developing a myeloid neoplasm. The study included a learning cohort of 683 consecutive patients investigated for unexplained cytopenia, and a validation cohort of 190 patients referred for suspected myeloid neoplasm. Using granulocyte DNA, we looked for somatic mutations in 40 genes that are recurrently mutated in myeloid malignancies. Overall, 435/683 patients carried a somatic mutation in at least 1 of these genes. Carrying a somatic mutation with a variant allele frequency ≥0.10, or carrying 2 or more mutations, had a positive predictive value for diagnosis of myeloid neoplasm equal to 0.86 and 0.88, respectively. Spliceosome gene mutations and comutation patterns involving TET2, DNMT3A, or ASXL1 had positive predictive values for myeloid neoplasm ranging from 0.86 to 1.0. Within subjects with inconclusive diagnostic findings, carrying 1 or more somatic mutations was associated with a high probability of developing a myeloid neoplasm during follow-up (hazard ratio = 13.9, P < .001). The predictive values of mutation analysis were confirmed in the independent validation cohort. The findings of this study indicate that mutation analysis on peripheral blood granulocytes may significantly improve the current diagnostic approach to unexplained cytopenia and more generally the diagnostic accuracy of myeloid neoplasms.
•Mutation profiling has a high predictive value for identifying individuals with, or at high risk of developing, a myeloid neoplasm.•Patients with clonal cytopenia have a significantly higher risk of developing a myeloid neoplasm than those with no evidence of clonality.
Diagnostic criteria for hypoplastic myelodysplasic syndrome (h-MDS) have not been clearly established, making the differential diagnosis from other bone marrow failure syndromes (BMF) challenging. In ...this study, we aimed to delineate clinical, histopathological, and molecular features of h-MDS, based on a large and well-annotated cohort of patients with bone marrow (BM) hypocellularity. The study included 534 consecutive adult patients with hypocellular BM (278 h-MDS and 136 aplastic anemia), and 727 with normo- or hypercellular MDS (n-MDS). Comparison of clinical features of patients with h-MDS as defined by BM cellularity ≤25% (n = 204) or reduced age-adjusted cellularity (n = 74) did not reveal significant differences. We developed a diagnostic score to discriminate h-MDS from non-malignant BMF based on histological and cytological variables with the highest specificity for MDS (h-score). The information from chromosomal abnormalities and somatic mutation patterns was then integrated into a cyto-histological/genetic score (hg-score). This score was able to segregate two groups of h-MDS with a significantly different risk of blast progression (P < 0.001). The integration of cyto-histological and genetic features in adult patients with hypocellular BM facilitated segregation into two distinct groups, one with clinical and genetic features highly consistent with myeloid neoplasm, and one with features more consistent with non-malignant BMF.
Somatic mutations in splicing factor genes frequently occur in myeloid neoplasms. While SF3B1 mutations are associated with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) with ring sideroblasts, SRSF2P95 mutations ...are found in different disease categories, including MDS, myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), myelodysplastic/myeloproliferative neoplasms (MDS/MPN), and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). To identify molecular determinants of this phenotypic heterogeneity, we explored molecular and clinical features of a prospective cohort of 279 SRSF2P95-mutated cases selected from a population of 2663 patients with myeloid neoplasms. Median number of somatic mutations per subject was 3. Multivariate regression analysis showed associations between co-mutated genes and clinical phenotype, including JAK2 or MPL with myelofibrosis (OR = 26.9); TET2 with monocytosis (OR = 5.2); RAS-pathway genes with leukocytosis (OR = 5.1); and STAG2, RUNX1, or IDH1/2 with blast phenotype (MDS or AML) (OR = 3.4, 1.9, and 2.1, respectively). Within patients with SRSF2–JAK2 co-mutation, JAK2 dominance was invariably associated with clinical feature of MPN, whereas SRSF2 mutation was dominant in MDS/MPN. Within patients with SRSF2–TET2 co-mutation, clinical expressivity of monocytosis was positively associated with co-mutated clone size. This study provides evidence that co-mutation pattern, clone size, and hierarchy concur to determine clinical phenotype, tracing relevant genotype–phenotype associations across disease entities and giving insight on unaccountable clinical heterogeneity within current WHO classification categories.
We analyzed
and CXCR4 mutation status of 260 patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia or IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance using allele-specific real time quantitative ...polymerase chain reaction and Sanger sequencing, respectively. A subgroup of 119 patients was further studied with next-generation sequencing of 11 target genes (
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
,
, and
).
(L265P) was found at diagnosis in 91% of patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia and in 60% of patients with IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance using allele-specific polymerase chain reaction analysis.
mutations other than the classical L265P (V217F, S219C and M232T) were found in four cases by next-generation sequencing. Waldenström macroglobulinemia patients with wild-type
had a distinct clinical phenotype characterized by less bone marrow infiltration (
=0.01) and more frequent extramedullary involvement (
=0.001) compared to patients with mutated
Patients with wild-type
did not show additional mutations in the other target genes.
mutations were found by Sanger sequencing in 22% of patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia. With next-generation sequencing, a
mutation was detected in 23% of patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia and 9% of those with IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance. Asymptomatic Waldenström macroglobulinemia patients harboring a
mutation had a shorter treatment-free survival (51 months) than that of patients with wild-type
(median not reached) (
=0.007). Analysis of variant allele frequencies indicated that
mutations were present in the dominant clone in the majority of cases. Recurrent somatic mutations of
were found in 24% of patients with Waldenström macroglobulinemia and 5% of patients with IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance and were primarily subclonal.
Spliceosome mutations are frequently found in myelodysplasia. Splicing alterations induced by these mutations, their precise targets, and the effect at the transcript level have not been fully ...elucidated. Here we report transcriptomic analyses of 265 bone marrow samples from myelodysplasia patients, followed by a validation using CRISPR/Cas9-mediated gene editing and an assessment of nonsense-mediated decay susceptibility. Small but widespread reduction of intron-retaining isoforms is the most frequent splicing alteration in SF3B1-mutated samples. SF3B1 mutation is also associated with 3' splice site alterations, leading to the most pronounced reduction of canonical transcripts. Target genes include tumor suppressors and genes of mitochondrial iron metabolism or heme biosynthesis. Alternative exon usage is predominant in SRSF2- and U2AF1-mutated samples. Usage of an EZH2 cryptic exon harboring a premature termination codon is increased in both SRSF2- and U2AF1-mutated samples. Our study reveals a landscape of splicing alterations and precise targets of various spliceosome mutations.
Daratumumab is a monoclonal antibody directed against the transmembrane glycoprotein CD38 expressed on plasma cells and lymphoplasmocytes, with a proven efficacy in multiple myeloma. Here we show its ...clinical efficacy in a patient with cold agglutinin disease (CAD) relapsed after multiple lines of therapy. CAD is caused by cold reactive autoantibodies that induce complement mediated hemolysis and peripheral circulatory symptoms. The disease is also characterized by the presence of monoclonal IgM gammopathy and of a lymphoid bone marrow infiltration that benefits from B-cell targeting therapies (i.e., rituximab) but also from plasma cell directed therapies, such as proteasome inhibitors. In the patient described, we also show that daratumumab therapy influenced the dynamics of several immunoregulatory cytokine levels (IL-6, IL-10, IL-17, IFN-γ, TNF-α, TGF-β) indicating an immunomodulatory effect of the drug beyond plasma cell depletion. In addition, we provide a literature review on the use of daratumumab in autoimmune conditions, including multi-treated and refractory patients with autoimmune hemolytic anemia (both CAD and warm forms), Evans syndrome (association of autoimmune hemolytic anemia and immune thrombocytopenia) and non-hematologic autoimmune diseases, such as systemic lupus erythematosus and rheumatoid arthritis.
In myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) may have regulatory effects on the hematopoietic system and contribute to disease progression. We analyzed by ...immunocytochemistry VEGF expression in bone marrow (BM) cells from 188 patients with MDS and 96 non-hemopathic subjects. We also measured VEGF BM plasma levels and in vitro VEGF release. Our aims were to evaluate whether VEGF expression abnormalities were associated with relevant laboratory or clinical findings and their possible prognostic value. In MDS, VEGF expression was higher than in controls (p < .0001) and VEGF release was significantly higher in the low-risk cases. A trend to a positive correlation between VEGF myeloid expression and apoptotic rate was observed. High myeloid VEGF levels were independently associated with longer overall survival (p < .0001) and progression-free survival (p = .0002). Our findings suggest that, in MDS, VEGF production and release may contribute to ineffective hematopoiesis, with a potential prognostic role.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IJS, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In a cohort of 3131 patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), we identified 200 patients (6.4%) who reported a second case of haematological malignancies (HM) in first‐ or second‐degree ...relatives. The occurrence of a second HM in the family was not influenced by MPN subtype, sex or driver mutation, while it was associated with age at MPN diagnosis: 8.5% of patients diagnosed with MPN younger than 45 years had a second relative affected with HM compared to 5.5% of those diagnosed at the age of 45 years or older (p = 0.003), thus suggesting a genetic predisposition to HM with early onset.
Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDSs) are a heterogeneous group of clonal hematopoietic disorders with a highly variable prognosis. To identify a gene expression–based classification of myelodysplasia ...with biological and clinical relevance, we performed a comprehensive transcriptomic analysis of myeloid neoplasms with dysplasia using transcriptome sequencing. Unsupervised clustering of gene expression data of bone marrow CD34+ cells from 100 patients identified 2 subgroups. The first subtype was characterized by increased expression of genes related to erythroid/megakaryocytic (EMK) lineages, whereas the second subtype showed upregulation of genes related to immature progenitor (IMP) cells. Compared with the first so-called EMK subtype, the IMP subtype showed upregulation of many signaling pathways and downregulation of several pathways related to metabolism and DNA repair. The IMP subgroup was associated with a significantly shorter survival in both univariate (hazard ratio HR, 5.0; 95% confidence interval CI, 1.8-14; P < .001) and multivariate analysis (HR, 4.9; 95% CI, 1.3-19; P = .02). Leukemic transformation was limited to the IMP subgroup. The prognostic significance of our classification was validated in an independent cohort of 183 patients. We also constructed a model to predict the subgroups using gene expression profiles of unfractionated bone marrow mononuclear cells (BMMNCs). The model successfully predicted clinical outcomes in a test set of 114 patients with BMMNC samples. The addition of our classification to the clinical model improved prediction of patient outcomes. These results indicated biological and clinical relevance of our gene expression–based classification, which will improve risk prediction and treatment stratification of MDS.
•Through a comprehensive transcriptomic analysis, we discovered 2 major subgroups of myelodysplasia defined by gene expression profiles.•The gene expression–based subgroups had independent prognostic value, which was validated in an external cohort.
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