Moleculaire analyse van individuele leukemiecellen bij T-cel acute lymfatische leukemie

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a prevalent disorder with a peak incidence in 2-to-5-year-old children. Although childhood ALL survival is approaching 90%, the outcome in infants and older patients remains poor, and also in low-risk ALL patients there is a relapse rate of one in five. Recent studies indicate that ALL is very heterogeneous at the genomic level, and that these leukemias are under constant 'evolution'. At diagnosis, different clones may be present, each with a slightly different set of genomic lesions and different biological properties. At relapse, one of these clones may become predominant or new clones may arise. To get a better insight in this heterogeneity, we will characterize the genomes of ALL at diagnosis and relapse at the single cell level. This single cell sequencing approach will allow us to trace leukemia cells with different combinations of mutations (different clones) at diagnosis and to compare that with single cell information at relapse. In combination with cell surface marker expression of the individual single cells, these data will provide new views on the origin and progression of ALL, as well as on the origins of relapse.

Publication year:2018

Accessibility:Open