Molecular Diagnostics Moving Hematological Malignancies into the Era 0f Precision Medicine

Citation: Al-Anazi KA (2017) Molecular Diagnostics Moving Hematological Malignancies into the Era 0f Precision Medicine. J Mol Genet Med Vol.1 No.1:5 Cancer is a genomic disorder resulting from cellular accumulation of genetic alterations [1]. The first complete cancer genome, obtained from a patient with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), was reported in the year 2008 [2]. Hematopoiesis requires self-renewal and well-organized process of differentiation of hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in order to maintain the life-long regeneration of various types of blood cells [3]. Perturbations of normal differentiation of HSCs can result in the 3 main types of hematologic malignancies (HMs): leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma myeloma (MM) [3]. HMs has a molecular genetic basis as they evolve as a consequence of the expression of aberrant genes and/or an aberrant expression of normal genes [4]. The discovery of several novel somatic mutations by next generation sequencing (NGS) has led to the discovery of previously unrecognized genes and molecular pathways that are valuable both diagnostically and therapeutically [5]. The genetic and genomic alterations play a pivotal role in the: diagnosis, disease classification, prognosis and treatment selection in most HMs [1,6,7]. The various cytogenetic techniques, particularly molecular tests, performed in patients with HMs are useful in: provision of insights into the disease biology, establishment of the diagnosis, prognostication, selection of the most appropriate therapy and monitoring response to novel therapies [4,6].