New articles on T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children (T-ALL) prepared within project partnership are now available
Recently the collaboration between partners in the Next Level Horizon 2020 project resulted in the publication addressing the importance of epigenetic background in pediatric T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL). The study was conducted by Pieter Van Vlierberge Lab (Ghent University in Belgium) in cooperation with Małgorzata Dawidowska team (Institute of Human Genetics PAS in Poland). This article shows that the global profile of methylation in T-ALL patients can be a marker of different growth dynamics of preleukemic cells which results in more or less aggressive course of leukemia and in consequence worse or better outcome for the T-ALL patients.
https://bloodcancerdiscov.aacrjournals.org/content/1/3/274
Later on the T-ALL Lab from Institute of Human Genetics PAS led by Małgorzata Dawidowska published a review article covering biological and clinical aspects of DNA methylation in T-ALL. This publication provides the overview of mechanisms of DNA methylation, mutations in genes involved in this process and its impact on clinical features and outcome of T-ALL patients. The methylation profile seems to be an attractive prognostic marker for T-ALL patients, giving consistent results in several studies carried out on independent groups of patients. This publication shows how the development of science in the last 15 years changed our understanding of the influence of DNA methylation on this disease.