Prevalence and prognostic impact of allelic imbalances associated with leukemic transformation of Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms

Blood. 2010 Apr 8;115(14):2882-90. doi: 10.1182/blood-2009-07-235119. Epub 2010 Jan 12.

Abstract

Philadelphia chromosome-negative myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) including polycythemia vera, essential thrombocythemia, and primary myelofibrosis show an inherent tendency for transformation into leukemia (MPN-blast phase), which is hypothesized to be accompanied by acquisition of additional genomic lesions. We, therefore, examined chromosomal abnormalities by high-resolution single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) array in 88 MPN patients, as well as 71 cases with MPN-blast phase, and correlated these findings with their clinical parameters. Frequent genomic alterations were found in MPN after leukemic transformation with up to 3-fold more genomic changes per sample compared with samples in chronic phase (P < .001). We identified commonly altered regions involved in disease progression including not only established targets (ETV6, TP53, and RUNX1) but also new candidate genes on 7q, 16q, 19p, and 21q. Moreover, trisomy 8 or amplification of 8q24 (MYC) was almost exclusively detected in JAK2V617F(-) cases with MPN-blast phase. Remarkably, copy number-neutral loss of heterozygosity (CNN-LOH) on either 7q or 9p including homozygous JAK2V617F was related to decreased survival after leukemic transformation (P = .01 and P = .016, respectively). Our high-density SNP-array analysis of MPN genomes in the chronic compared with leukemic stage identified novel target genes and provided prognostic insights associated with the evolution to leukemia.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Comparative Study
  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Blast Crisis / genetics*
  • Blast Crisis / metabolism
  • Blast Crisis / mortality
  • Chromosomes, Human / genetics*
  • Chromosomes, Human / metabolism
  • Disease-Free Survival
  • Female
  • Hematologic Neoplasms / genetics*
  • Hematologic Neoplasms / metabolism
  • Hematologic Neoplasms / mortality
  • Humans
  • Janus Kinase 2 / genetics*
  • Janus Kinase 2 / metabolism
  • Loss of Heterozygosity*
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Neoplasm Proteins / genetics*
  • Neoplasm Proteins / metabolism
  • Philadelphia Chromosome*
  • Prevalence
  • Survival Rate

Substances

  • Neoplasm Proteins
  • JAK2 protein, human
  • Janus Kinase 2