Newly identified mechanisms in B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas uncovered by next-generation sequencing.
Application of molecular techniques to study the genetics and gene expression alterations in non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHLs) has revealed examples of common genetic events shared across individual disease types as well as extensive heterogeneity within specific diseases. For example, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) can be effectively divided into two broad molecular subgroups in which genetic changes unique to each subgroup continue to be further determined. The broad availability of next-generation sequencing (NGS) now affords the ability to fully characterize the genetics of individual tumor types and application of this to some common NHLs has provided a wealth of new information. NGS-based research in NHL has unraveled a complex set of genetic alterations that underlie each of the DLBCL molecular subgroups. For example, these and studies of other NHLs have indicated a variety of mechanisms by which nuclear factor- κB (NF-κB) is deregulated in mature B-cell neoplasms and have also found extensive common features between germinal center B-cell-like DLBCL and other germinal center-derived lymphomas. Overall, NGS has identified new players in each of the studied diseases and provided promising new therapeutic targets for NHL.
Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada; Genome Sciences Centre, British Columbia Cancer Agency. Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Electronic address: rdmorin@sfu.ca.
Ryan D
RD
Morin
Randy D
RD
Gascoyne
D006801:Humans; D016393:Lymphoma, B-Cell / Q000235:genetics / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000473:pathology; D009154:Mutation; D009857:Oncogenes; D015398:Signal Transduction; D019139:Tumor Escape; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment