A study conducted by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center revealed pre-leukaemic mutations, called clonal haematopoiesis, may predict whether patients develop t-MNs.

Clonal haematopoiesis appears to function as a biomarker for patients who develop t-MNs, a leukaemia recognised for its extremely poor prognosis.

The study findings were published in The Lancet Oncology and presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Haematology in San Diego.

“Therapy-related myeloid neoplasms occur in about 5 percent of cancer patients who were treated with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy,” said Andy Futreal, Ph.D., chair ad interim of Genomic Medicine.

“In most cases, it is fatal, and currently there is no way to predict who is at risk or prevent it.”

Being able to detect t-MNs earlier is crucial given that the disease usually occurs three to eight years following chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy.

“T-MNs are a problem that needs urgent attention,” said Koichi Takashi, M.D., assistant professor of Leukaemia and Genomic Medicine and a co-author on the Lancet Oncology paper.

“Since many cancer patients are now living longer, t-MNs are an increasing concern for many cancer survivors.”

Futreal’s team studied 14 patients with t-MNs and found traces of pre-leukaemic mutations or clonal haematopoiesis in 10.

To determine if pre-leukaemic mutations could reliably predict whether the patients would develop leukaemia, the researchers compared prevalence of pre-leukaemic mutations in the 14 patients with 54 patients who did not develop t-MNs after therapy.

“We found that prevalence of pre-leukaemic mutations was significantly higher in patients who developed t-MNs (71 percent) versus those who did not (26 percent),” said Futreal.

“We also validated these findings in a separate cohort of patients. Based on these findings, we believe pre-leukaemic mutations may function as a new biomarker that would predict t-MNs development.”

In the sample of 14 patients with t-MNs, the team looked at samples of bone marrow at the time of t-MNs development and blood samples obtained at the time of their primary cancer diagnosis.

“We found genetic mutations that are present in t-MNs leukaemia samples actually could be found in blood samples obtained at the time of their original cancer diagnosis,” said Takahashi.

“Based on this finding, we believe the data suggest potential approaches of screening for clonal haematopoiesis in cancer patients that may identify patients at risk of developing t-MNs, although further studies are needed.”

Source: MD Anderson