Vol 52, No 4 (2021)
Review article
Published online: 2021-08-31

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Leukemic stem cells: clone wars

Wiesław Wiktor Jędrzejczak1
DOI: 10.5603/AHP.2021.0052
Acta Haematol Pol 2021;52(4):268-271.

Abstract

Leukemic stem cells arise as the effect of mutations of normal hematopoietic cells and overgrow normal hematopoietic tissue. They may also infiltrate other organs. While they begin their life from mutations, they continue to mutate, creating daughter leukemic stem cells that harbor two, three, or more mutations, and these mutations can be different in different daughter stem cells of the same parental line in the same individual. These daughter stem cells then compete between themselves as to which one will overgrow the host tissues with its progeny, and finally will contribute to the host’s death. This process can be shaped by therapy, which may preferentially eliminate some subclones and simultaneously favor others. To eliminate such stem cells, therapy is needed that will preferentially attack their self-renewal.

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