Long-term tracking of chronic blood cancers has revealed major genetic differences between patients whose conditions remain stable and those whose diseases eventually become more severe. The findings suggest that DNA changes may help doctors improve diagnoses, monitor patients more accurately, assess how treatments are working, and identify signs of progression years before symptoms become obvious.
Published in Cancer Discovery, the study was led by researchers at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and their collaborators. The team combined genetic analysis with detailed clinical records to investigate how chronic blood cancers can develop over several decades. The findings were also presented at the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR) Conference in San Diego.
How Chronic Blood Cancers Develop
Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are a group of rare, long-lasting blood cancers that begin in the bone marrow, where blood cells are produced. In people with MPNs, the bone marrow makes certain blood cells in an uncontrolled way.
Around 40,000 people in the UK are living with MPNs, and approximately 4,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.[1] These cancers often progress slowly. They can begin with mutations, or changes in DNA, that arise very early in life, followed by additional mutations that accumulate over several decades.[2]
