Publication Date:
2019-11-13
Description:
Therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) is a complex disease entity. It results from molecular abnormalities induced by chemotherapy, radiation and immunosuppressive therapies. As a group of diseases, t-AML may represent cases that progressed from therapy-related myelodysplastic syndromes (t-MDS) and "de novo" t-AML. The classification t-AML also includes patients (pts) whose AML is a second primary cancer e.g., due to a genetic predisposition to develop multiple, distinct cancers (those cases would be indistinguishable from the non-therapy-related AML). Origins of the disease may also vary: t-AML may evolve from clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential (CHIP) that preceded the first cancer, as a de novo disease or as a disease which progressed from "de novo" CHIP. Comprehensive genomic analyses involving clonal hierarchy may reveal genetic patterns pointing towards a potential molecular pathogenesis. We applied targeted gene sequencing to analyze a large cohort of pts with AML (n=2696) for the presence of somatic mutations: comparator subtypes include primary AML (pAML, n=2133) and secondary AML (evolving from an antecendent MDS; sAML, n=446) to be compared to t-AML (n=117). These pts have had a history of other primary malignancies for which they received cytotoxic treatments including chemotherapy and/or radiation. t-AML pts were younger than pts with other AML types (median age: 60 years for t-AML vs. 65 and 69 for pAML and sAML). t-AML pts were more likely to have leukopenia compared to pAML (23% vs. 21%, P=0.7) but significantly less likely than pts with sAML (23% vs. 38% P=0.002). Normal cytogenetics were significantly less present in t-AML when compared to pAML (39% vs. 62% P
Print ISSN:
0006-4971
Electronic ISSN:
1528-0020
Topics:
Biology
,
Medicine