Exposure to smoking and mutations in blood cells can lead to rare cancer that affects immune cells

Mutations in blood cells likely caused by smoking and aging-related changes can lead to a rare type of blood cancer that affects immune cells, a study published today in eLife shows.

The findings could lead to new ways to diagnose, treat or prevent rare blood cancers and identify patients who might develop a second type of blood cancer.

Peripheral T cell lymphoma (PTCL) and angioimmunoblastic T cell lymphoma (AITL) are two rare types of cancer that affect immune T cells. “AITL can be very aggressive, with only about a third of patients surviving at least five years after their diagnosis,” says first author Shuhua Cheng, senior research associate in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, US. “To develop more effective therapies for AITL and PTCL, we need to know more about their causes.”

Cheng and his team used next-generation genome sequencing to analyze 537 genes in 27 patients with AITL or PTCL for genetic changes that may lead to these T cell tumors and secondary cancers in some patients. . They found that in about 70% of patients there were mutations in precursor cells, most likely stem cells, in the bone marrow that can lead to the production of increasing numbers of blood cells with these mutations, as well. than the early development of T cell tumors. These mutations in precursor cells are thought to be linked to aging.

In addition, the team found that mutations associated with the progression of these tumors could be linked to smoking or exposure to second-hand smoke. This suggests that stopping smoking or avoiding exposure to second-hand smoke may have beneficial effects in preventing the development of these T-cell tumors. They also found that patients with a higher mutation load. high of any of the genes associated with the early development of these tumors were at greater risk of developing other types of tumors.

“Our results provide new information on how exposure to smoking may cooperate with early mutations in blood precursor cells to lead to the development of certain T cell cancers,” says lead author Wayne Tam, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine. “The results suggest a potential new way to identify patients with AITL or PTCL who are most at risk of developing secondary tumors, and may also help scientists and clinicians improve the way these cancers are prevented. , diagnosed and treated. “