Olli Dufva, Matti Kankainen, Tiina Kelkka, Nodoka Sekiguchi, Shady Adnan Awad, Samuli Eldfors, Bhagwan Yadav, Heikki Kuusanmäki, Disha Malani, Emma I Andersson, Paavo Pietarinen, Leena Saikko, Panu E Kovanen, Teija Ojala, Dean A Lee, Thomas P Loughran, Hideyuki Nakazawa, Junji Suzumiya, Ritsuro Suzuki, Young Hyeh Ko, Won Seog Kim, Shih-Sung Chuang, Tero Aittokallio, Wing C Chan, Koichi Ohshima, Fumihiro Ishida, Satu Mustjoki
Aggressive natural killer-cell (NK-cell) leukemia (ANKL) is an extremely aggressive malignancy with dismal prognosis and lack of targeted therapies. Here, we elucidate the molecular pathogenesis of ANKL using a combination of genomic and drug sensitivity profiling. We study 14 ANKL patients using whole-exome sequencing (WES) and identify mutations in STAT3 (21%) and RAS-MAPK pathway genes (21%) as well as in DDX3X (29%) and epigenetic modifiers (50%). Additional alterations include JAK-STAT copy gains and tyrosine phosphatase mutations, which we show recurrent also in extranodal NK/T-cell lymphoma, nasal type (NKTCL) through integration of public genomic data...
April 19, 2018: Nature Communications