SUMMARY
Juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia is a rare and aggressive blood cancer occurring in early childhood. Research in the past decades mainly focused on identifying aberrations at the DNA level. Although our molecular knowledge about juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia biology has steadily increased over the last years, haematopoietic stem cell transplantation is currently the only curative option. Unfortunately, the relapse rate after stem cell transplantation remains high and almost half of the children do not survive the disease, indicating that new therapeutic strategies are urgently required. To further elucidate the biology of the disease, we investigated gene expression levels of both coding and non-coding RNA molecules. This led to the identification of LIN28B and its co-regulated genes as central players in juvenile myelomonocytic leukaemia biology and opens the door for the development of new targeted therapeutics.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2017;8(5):198–200)
