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The evolutionary biography of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Nature Genetics volume 45, pages 229–231 (2013)Cite this article

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A recent study shows that the life history of chronic lymphocytic leukemia is characterized by a complex and dynamic architecture involving the development of subclones with changing dominance over time. This innovative study provides a framework to design anticipation-based chemotherapy approaches for cancer treatment.

Forty years ago, the evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky published an essay entitled Nothing in Biology Makes Sense Except in the Light of Evolution1. This concept was originally applied at the organismal level, but, shortly after, Peter Nowell presciently proposed that tumor cell populations also progress through clonal evolution2, thereby extending the relevance of evolutionary processes to the cellular level and through a pathological perspective. During the last few years, cancer genome sequencing has provided experimental support for these two concepts, such that we propose that 'nothing in oncology makes sense except in the light of evolution'.

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Figure 1: Effect of tumor heterogeneity on CLL evolution and treatment.

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  1. Xose S. Puente and Carlos López-Otín are in the Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular and the Instituto Universitario de Oncología (IUOPA) at the Universidad de Oviedo, Oviedo, Spain.,

    Xose S Puente & Carlos López-Otín

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  1. Xose S Puente
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  2. Carlos López-Otín
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Correspondence to Carlos López-Otín.

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Puente, X., López-Otín, C. The evolutionary biography of chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Nat Genet 45, 229–231 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.2556

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