Acquired genetic changes in secondary tumor diseases

Abstract

Recent years have seen significant progress in the treatment of patients with malignancies, but have increased the risk of late complications including secondary cancers. Frequent complications are therapy related myelodysplastic syndrome (tMDS) and acute myeloid leukaemia (tAML). This article reviews the results published so far on genetic investigations of patients with tMDS and tAML. The review focuses on acquired genetic changes, specific clonal chromosomal aberrations, gene mutations, current knowledge of the relationship between cytotoxic agents used in previous treatment with genome abnormalities, and classification of tMDS/tAML according to genetic and clinical characteristics. The available results indicate that cytogenetic and molecular analysis have clinical usefulness in the diagnosis and management of patients with tMDS/tAMl, they contribute to the understanding of leukemogenesis and the role of cytotoxic agents in the etiology of acute leukaemia.