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- Title
Exploiting Clonal Evolution to Improve the Diagnosis and Treatment Efficacy Prediction in Pediatric AML.
- Authors
Bertuccio, Salvatore Nicola; Anselmi, Laura; Masetti, Riccardo; Lonetti, Annalisa; Cerasi, Sara; Polidori, Sara; Serravalle, Salvatore; Pession, Andrea; Nones, Katia
- Abstract
Simple Summary: The use of innovative technologies has revolutionized cancer research in recent years, and in the field of pediatric oncohematology, great results have been achieved. However, within this context, acute myeloid leukemia still represents a considerable challenge for clinicians, as frequent cases of relapse or refractory disease, especially in specific subgroups, remain present. With this review, the authors aim to recapitulate the main features of this extremely heterogeneous malignancy, by highlighting the concept of clonal evolution and how, thanks also to the impact of new high throughput techniques, this could be exploited to deepen the current knowledge on molecular mechanisms driving this disease. Overall, this study will seek to pave the way for making new tools available to further improve diagnosis and treatment protocols in pediatric patients. Despite improvements in therapeutic protocols and in risk stratification, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains the leading cause of childhood leukemic mortality. Indeed, the overall survival accounts for ~70% but still ~30% of pediatric patients experience relapse, with poor response to conventional chemotherapy. Thus, there is an urgent need to improve diagnosis and treatment efficacy prediction in the context of this disease. Nowadays, in the era of high throughput techniques, AML has emerged as an extremely heterogeneous disease from a genetic point of view. Different subclones characterized by specific molecular profiles display different degrees of susceptibility to conventional treatments. In this review, we describe in detail this genetic heterogeneity of pediatric AML and how it is linked to relapse in terms of clonal evolution. We highlight some innovative tools to characterize minor subclones that could help to enhance diagnosis and a preclinical model suitable for drugs screening. The final ambition of research is represented by targeted therapy, which could improve the prognosis of pediatric AML patients, as well as to limit the side toxicity of current treatments.
- Subjects
ACUTE myeloid leukemia diagnosis; ACUTE myeloid leukemia treatment; GENETIC mutation; TUMORS in children; QUALITY assurance; TECHNOLOGY
- Publication
Cancers, 2021, Vol 13, Issue 9, p1995
- ISSN
2072-6694
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.3390/cancers13091995