Clinical Phenotype of Myeloproliferative Neoplasms with Activating CBL-mutations Resembles Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia.

Abstract 3895

Poster Board III-831

A genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) screen led to the identification of 11q aUPD in patients diagnosed with various subtypes of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN), e.g. chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML), atypical chronic myeloid leukemia (aCML) and myelofibrosis (MF) (Grand et al., Blood 2009;113:6182). Further molecular analyses revealed acquired activating point and length mutations in CBL exons 8 and 9 in 10% of CMML, 8% of aCML and 6% of MF cases. Most variants were missense substitutions in the RING or linker domains that abrogated CBL ubiquitin ligase activity and conferred a proliferative advantage to 32D cells overexpressing FLT3. In this study, 160 patients with BCR-ABL and JAK2 V617F negative MPNs were screened for CBL mutations by PCR and direct sequencing. Eighteen known (Y371H, L380P [2x], C381R, C381Y [2x], C384Y, C396Y, H398P, H398Q, W408C, P417H, F418L, R420Q [5x]) and four new (F378L, G397V, I423N, V430M) missense mutations affecting fourteen residues were identified in 20 patients. Two patients harbored two different mutations. The clinical phenotype could be characterized more precisely in 17 patients. Median age was 68 years (range 59–85) with a slight female predominance (f, n=10; m, n=7). Striking hematological features were leukocytosis (14/17; 82%; median 29,000/μl, range 4,500-141,000) with continuously left-shifted granulopoiesis (blasts, promyelocytes, myelocytes, metamyelocytes) in 85% and elevated monocytes (median 2,500/μl, range 630-10,656) >1,000/μL in 88% (15/17) of patients. Eosinophilia (>1,500/μL) was rare (3/17, 18%). Anemia (normal values: f, Hb <12g/dL; m, Hb <14g/dL) was present in all 17 patients (f, median 10g/dL, range 8.7-11.8; m, median 11.2g/dL, range 8.6-12.9). Platelets did not exceed 300,000/μL in any patient while 11/17 (65%) patients presented with thrombocytopenia (median 125,000/μL, range 18,000-271,000). Splenomegaly was present in 11/17 patients (65%) and LDH was elevated (median 304U/L, range 189-729) in 9/17 patients (52%). Bone marrow histology and immunohistochemistry were available from 12 patients. Relevant features were hypercellularity, marked granulopoiesis and microlobulated megakaryocytes without clusters in 11/12 patients (92%), respectively. Increased fibres were seen in 8/12 (67%) patients of whom one showed severe fibrosis. Clinical follow-up was available from 17 patients. Thirteen patients (76%) have died because of progression to secondary acute myeloid leukemia/blast phase (n=7), cytopenia-related complications (n=2) or for unknown reasons (n=4) after a median of 23 months (range 3-60) following diagnosis. In conclusion, point mutations of CBL exons 8 and 9 are present in approximately 6-12% of BCR-ABL and JAK2 V617F negative MPNs. They are associated with a distinct clinical and hematological phenotype presenting with myeloproliferative features allowing diagnosis of a proliferative subtype of CMML rather than aCML or MF in the majority of cases. Patients with left-shifted leukocytosis, monocytosis, anemia and lack of thrombocytosis who are negative for BCR-ABL and point or length mutations of JAK2 should be routinely screened for CBL mutations.