Koichi Takahashi, MD, assistant professor, Department of Leukemia, Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses a study exploring a potential biomarker for patients likely to develop therapy-related leukemia.

Researchers sequenced peripheral blood from patients at their original cancer diagnosis, Takahashi explains. Patients who developed therapy-related leukemia were found to have a prevalence of clonal hematopoiesis detecting the leukemia mutation at approximately 71% compared with 26% in the control cohort. This suggests that detection of this pre-leukemic hematopoiesis may predict the development of therapy-related leukemia.

Overall, this could be a potential biomarker that may be used for early detection. Eventually, researchers hope to therapeutically target the hematopoiesis to prevent the disease from occurring in the future, he adds.

Koichi Takahashi, MD

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Dr. Takahashi on Biomarker That Predicts Development of Therapy-Related Leukemia