title: Pathogenesis and prognostication in acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
abstract: The process of lymphoid maturation is tightly controlled by the hierarchical activation of transcription factors and selection through functional signal transduction. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) represents a group of B/T-precursor-stage lymphoid cell malignancies arising from genetic alterations that block lymphoid differentiation and drive aberrant cell proliferation and survival. With recent advances in next-generation sequencing, we are discovering new mutations affecting normal lymphopoiesis and the significance of cooperating mutations, as well as epigenetic alterations. The data obtained in this way aids in the evaluation of prognosis in the individual patient but, importantly, also in incorporating targeted therapy appropriate for the mutational abnormality.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplantation, Rambam Health Care Campus 8 Ha'Aliya Street, Haifa 31096 Israel ; Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology Efron Street, Haifa 31096 Israel.
authors.forename: Tsila
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Zuckerman
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematology, Shaare Zedek Medical Center 12 Bayit Street, Jerusalem 91031 Israel ; Bruce Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology Efron Street, Haifa 31096 Israel.
authors.forename: Jacob M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Rowe