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Children with Down syndrome (DS) have an increased risk of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (ML-DS), particularly megakaryoblastic leukaemia, which is clonally -related to the neonatal myeloproliferative syndrome, Transient Abnormal Myelopoiesis (TAM) unique to infants with DS. Molecular, biological, and clinical data indicate that TAM is initiated before birth when fetal liver haematopoietic cells trisomic for chromosome 21 acquire mutations in GATA1. TAM usually resolves spontaneously by 6 months; however 20-30% subsequently develop ML-DS harbouring the same GATA1 mutation(s). This review focuses on recent studies describing haematological, clinical and biological features of TAM and discusses approaches to diagnose, treat and monitor minimal residual disease in TAM. An important unanswered question is whether ML-DS is always preceded by TAM as it may be clinically and possibly haematologically 'silent'. We have briefly discussed the role of population-based screening for TAM and development of treatment strategies to eliminate the preleukaemic TAM clone, thereby preventing ML-DS.

Original publication

DOI

10.1016/j.siny.2012.02.010

Type

Journal article

Journal

Semin Fetal Neonatal Med

Publication Date

08/2012

Volume

17

Pages

196 - 201

Keywords

Blood Cell Count, Blood Cells, Child, Child Development, Down Syndrome, GATA1 Transcription Factor, Humans, Infant, Infant, Newborn, Leukemia, Megakaryoblastic, Acute, Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute, Myelopoiesis, Neoplasm Regression, Spontaneous