RESULT: A total of 24 and 32 somatic variants were identified in presentation and relapse samples respectively with an average of 4.0 variants per patient at presentation and 5.3 variants per patient at relapse, with SNVs being more frequent than indels at both disease stages. All patients have somatic variants in at least one gene that is frequently mutated in AML at both disease presentation and relapse, with most of these variants are classic AML and recurrent hotspot mutations including NPM1 p.W288fs, FLT3-ITD, NRAS p.G12D and IDH2 p.R140Q. In addition, we found two distinct clonal evolution patterns of relapse: (1) a leukemic clone at disease presentation acquires additional mutations and evolves into the relapse clone after the chemotherapy; (2) a leukemic clone at disease presentation persists at relapse without the addition of novel somatic mutations.
CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study suggest that the relapse-initiating clones may pre-exist prior to therapy, which harbor or acquire mutations that confer selective advantage during chemotherapy, resulting in clonal expansion and eventually leading to relapse.
METHODS: Retrospective study on 17 cases of (β°) South East Asia (SEA) deletion from 2016 to 2019 referred to Institute for Medical Research were conducted. The clinical information and haematological profiles were evaluated. The mutation was analyzed, and the results were compared with other β°-thalassaemia groups. For HBB gene genotyping, all the cases were subjected for multiplex gap-PCR, 5 cases were subjected for HBB gene sequencing for exclusion of compound heterozygous with other beta variants. Co-inheritance of α-thalassaemia were determined using multiplex gap-PCR and multiplex ARMS-PCR.
RESULTS: Seventeen cases were positive for β°-thal SEA deletion. Fifteen cases were heterozygous and two were compound heterozygous for β°-thal SEA deletion. The results were compared with 182 cases of various heterozygous β° deletions and mutations. The mean Hb for heterozygous β°-thal SEA deletion (13.44 ± 1.45 g/dl) was normal and significantly higher than heterozygous IVS 1-1 and Codon 41/42 (post hoc test, p