Blood
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NUP98/NSD1 has recently been reported in association with poor outcome in acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Previous studies also observed a high overlap between NUP98/NSD1 and FLT3/ITD, raising the question as to whether the reported poor outcome is due to NUP98/NSD1 or caused by the co-occurrence of these 2 genetic lesions. We aimed to determine the prognostic significance of NUP98/NSD1 in the context of FLT3/ITD AML. ⋯ In CN-AML, patients with concomitant NUP98/NSD1 and FLT3/ITD had a worse outcome than those harboring NUP98/NSD1 only. In multivariate analysis, the dual NUP98/NSD1 and FLT3/ITD remained an independent predictor of poor outcome, and NUP98/NSD1 without FLT3/ITD lost its prognostic significance. Our study demonstrates that it is the interaction between NUP98/NSD1 and FLT3/ITD that determines the poor outcome of patients with NUP98/NSD1 disease.
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Calreticulin mutations (CALR(MUT)) are found in a significant proportion of patients with essential thrombocythemia (ET) lacking JAK2(V617F) or MPL mutations. They are associated with substantially different hematological and clinical features and define a distinct subtype of ET. ⋯ Neutrophil CALR(MUT) level was significantly higher than JAK2(V617F) level (median, 50% vs 18%; P < .0001), and wild-type myelopoiesis was suppressed in CALR(MUT) but not JAK2(V617F) patients. These data are suggestive of truly monoclonal hematopoiesis in CALR(MUT) patients and provide further evidence that the biology associated with CALR mutations is markedly different from that of JAK2(V617F) mutations.
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Multiple myeloma is a plasma cell malignancy in which significant advances have been observed during the last 15 years. Our understanding of the disease has been advanced through its molecular characterization. We have also seen improvements in patient care with the development of 2 new classes of active agents, proteasome inhibitors and immunomodulatory drugs (IMiDs), resulting in a significant improvement in overall survival of myeloma patients such that it can now be debated as to whether some subsets of myeloma patients can be cured. ⋯ Moreover, the molecular characterization of malignant plasma cells would not have predicted the effectiveness of these novel therapies. We hypothesize that proteasome inhibitors and IMiDs are highly active because malignant plasma cells are constrained by many of the characteristics of their normal counterparts and these novel therapies target both normal plasma cell biology and the cancer biology of myeloma. Thus, a better understanding of normal plasma cell biology will likely yield as many actionable targets as mapping the genomic landscape of this disease.