Therapy-related myeloid leukemia. A model for leukemogenesis

Therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) is a distinctive clinical syndrome occurring after exposure to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. t-AML arises in most cases from a multipotential hematopoietic stem cell or, less commonly, in a lineage committed progenitor cell. The prognosis for patients with t-AML is poor, as current forms of therapy are largely ineffective. Molecular analysis and gene expression profiling analysis of t-AML has revealed that there are distinct subtypes of t-AML that have a characteristic gene expression pattern. Establishing the molecular pathways involved in t-AML may facilitate the identification of selectively expressed genes that can be exploited for the development of urgently-needed targeted therapies.