Abstract
Adult acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a highly heterogeneous stem cell malignancy characterized by the clonal expansion of immature myeloid precursors. AML may emerge de novo, following other hematopoietic malignancies or after cytotoxic therapy for other disorders. Here, we investigated the clonal vs reactive nature of residual maturing bone marrow cells in 59 newly diagnosed adult AML and mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) patients as assessed by interphase fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of AML and myelodysplastic syndrome-associated cytogenetic alterations and/or the pattern of chromosome X inactivation, in females. In addition, we investigated the potential association between the degree of molecular/genetic involvement of hematopoiesis and coexistence of altered immunophenotypes by flow cytometry. Our results indicate that residual maturing neutrophils, monocytes and nucleated red cell precursors from the great majority of newly diagnosed AML and MPAL cases show a clonal pattern of involvement of residual maturing hematopoietic cells, in association with a greater number of altered immunophenotypes. These findings are consistent with the replacement of normal/reactive hematopoiesis by clonal myelopoiesis and/or erythropoiesis in most newly diagnosed AML and MPAL cases, supporting the notion that in most adults presenting with de novo AML, accumulation of blast cells could occur over a pre-existing clonal hematopoiesis.
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Acknowledgements
This work was supported by grants from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Madrid, Spain (RETICS RD12/0036/0048-FEDER); Junta de Castilla y León (Ayuda al Grupo GR37 de Excelencia de Castilla y León). CFG was supported by a grant from the Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Madrid, Spain (PI08/90881). MCS-S was supported by a grant from Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior -CAPES (1386/06-9) do Ministério de Educação do Brasil.
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Fernandez, C., Santos-Silva, M., López, A. et al. Newly diagnosed adult AML and MPAL patients frequently show clonal residual hematopoiesis. Leukemia 27, 2149–2156 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2013.109
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2013.109
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