Read the full paper: Hyperdiploidy impairs fetal hematopoietic progenitor fitness and differentiation enabling persistence of rare preleukemic aneuploid clones

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common form of childhood cancer. In this type of cancer, which affects blood cells, one of the most common abnormalities is the presence of cells with an excess of chromosomes (hyperdiploidy), a condition that leads to chromosomal instability.

Key PointsFirst hyperdiploidy event occurred within the first 3 decades of life and took a decade to complete.An MM cell accumulated 0.56 mutations per meg

Key Points. First hyperdiploidy event occured within the first three decades of life and took a decade to completeA MM cell accumulated on median 0.56 muta

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common form of childhood cancer. In this type of cancer, which affects blood cells, one of the most common abnormalities is the presence of cells with an excess of chromosomes (hyperdiploidy), a condition that leads to chromosomal instability.

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease, indicated by its many conceivable cytogenetic mutations. Hyperdiploidy is a rare abnormality in AML, more prevalent in children than adults, with few other distinguishing associations...

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease, indicated by its many conceivable cytogenetic mutations. Hyperdiploidy is a rare abnormality in AML, more prevalent in children than adults, with few other distinguishing associations...

Thampi et al. model prenatal hyperdiploidy in human fetal hematopoietic stem/progenitor cells and show that aneuploidy impairs fitness and delays differentiation. Although hyperdiploid cells are outcompeted in vitro, rare clones persist in vivo with cB-ALL-like chromosomal gains but fail to initiate leukemia, supporting a two-step leukemogenesis model.