New genetic analyses demonstrate that the presence of low-frequency subclonal populations, including high-risk subclones, at diagnosis in multiple myeloma can contribute to disease relapse and poor clinical outcomes. Thus, sensitive detection approaches are required to detect these subclones at diagnosis together with innovative treatment strategies to eradicate low-frequency, high-risk subclones and prevent them from becoming dominant.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals
Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription
$29.99 per month
cancel any time
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$189.00 per year
only $15.75 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Get just this article for as long as you need it
$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Davies, F. E. et al. Perspectives on the risk-stratified treatment of multiple myeloma. Blood Cancer Discov. 3, 273–284 (2022).
Facon, T. et al. Final analysis of survival outcomes in the phase 3 FIRST trial of up-front treatment for multiple myeloma. Blood 131, 301–310 (2018).
Attal, M. et al. Lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone with transplantation for myeloma. N. Engl. J. Med. 376, 1311–1320 (2017).
Voorhees, P. M. et al. Daratumumab, lenalidomide, bortezomib, and dexamethasone for transplant-eligible newly diagnosed multiple myeloma: the GRIFFIN trial. Blood 136, 936–945 (2020).
Jones, J. R. et al. Clonal evolution in myeloma: the impact of maintenance lenalidomide and depth of response on the genetics and sub-clonal structure of relapsed disease in uniformly treated newly diagnosed patients. Haematologica 104, 1440–1450 (2019).
Croft, J. et al. Copy number evolution and its relationship with patient outcome-an analysis of 178 matched presentation-relapse tumor pairs from the Myeloma XI trial. Leukemia 35, 2043–2053 (2021).
Lannes, R. et al. In multiple myeloma, high-risk secondary genetic events observed at relapse are present from diagnosis in tiny, undetectable subclonal populations. J. Clin. Oncol. https://doi.org/10.1200/JCO.21.01987 (2022).
Boyle, E. M. et al. BRAF and DIS3 mutations associate with adverse outcome in a long-term follow-up of patients with multiple myeloma. Clin. Cancer Res. 26, 2422–2432 (2020).
Mikulasova, A. et al. Microhomology-mediated end joining drives complex rearrangements and overexpression of MYC and PVT1 in multiple myeloma. Haematologica 105, 1055–1066 (2020).
Laks, E. et al. Clonal decomposition and DNA replication states defined by scaled single-cell genome sequencing. Cell 179, 1207–1221.e22 (2019).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
F.E.D. is an advisory board member for Abbvie, BMS/Celgene, GSK, Janssen, Oncopeptide, Regeneron, Pfizer, Sanofi and Takeda. E.M.B. declares no competing interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Boyle, E.M., Davies, F.E. From little subclones grow mighty oaks. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 20, 141–142 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-022-00727-w
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41571-022-00727-w