Neus Villamor

Hospital Clínic de Barcelona · Servicio de Hematología

Introduction: Cancer is a dynamic evolutionary process; thus, the evolutionary history of a cancer should strongly influence its future trajectory and so the clinical outcome of patients. However, accurately assessing an individual cancer’s evolutionary history in a scalable and clinically relevant manner is currently an open problem. To address th...

Introduction Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a biologically highly heterogeneous disease. An increasing number of genetic abnormalities responsible for its pathogenesis are being incorporated in latest classifications to refine AML diagnosis. Myelodysplasia-related AML (AML-MR) is a broad category defined by mutations in a significant number of gen...

Cancer development, progression, and response to treatment are evolutionary processes, but characterising the evolutionary dynamics at sufficient scale to be clinically-meaningful has remained challenging. Here, we develop a new methodology called EVOFLUx, based upon natural DNA methylation barcodes fluctuating over time, that quantitatively infers...

Watchful waiting is an acceptable management strategy for advanced‐stage, low tumor burden (LTB) patients with follicular lymphoma (FL). However, the prediction of how long this treatment‐free observation period will last remains imperfect. We explored whether total metabolic tumor volume (TMTV) and other positron emission tomography parameters wer...

In recent years, major advances in the understanding of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) pathogenesis, together with technological progress, have led us into a new era in the diagnosis and follow-up of patients with AML. A combination of immunophenotyping, cytogenetic and molecular studies are required for AML diagnosis, including the use of next-gener...

While some follicular lymphoma (FL) patients do not require treatment or experience prolonged responses, others relapse early, and little is known about genetic alterations specific to patients with a particular clinical behavior. We selected 56 grade 1-3A FL patients according to their need of treatment or timing of relapse: never treated (n = 7),...

Richter transformation (RT) is a paradigmatic evolution of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) into a very aggressive large B cell lymphoma conferring a dismal prognosis. The mechanisms driving RT remain largely unknown. We characterized the whole genome, epigenome and transcriptome, combined with single-cell DNA/RNA-sequencing analyses and function...

High-throughput sequencing of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) has emerged as a promising noninvasive approach in lymphomas, being particularly useful when a biopsy specimen is not available for molecular analysis, as it frequently occurs in primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBL). We used cfDNA for genomic characterization in 20 PMBL patients by mea...

Introduction: Clonal evolution drives cancer development due to the emergence and/or selection of proliferatively advantageous subclones. Its understanding may facilitate the design of anticipation-based management strategies. Richter transformation (RT) is a paradigmatic tumor evolution in which chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), an indolent neop...

Serum soluble CD23 (sCD23) levels have been acknowledged as a prognostic factor in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but their potential relevance has not been analyzed in recent times. We retrospectively studied 338 CLL, small lymphocytic lymphoma, or CLL‐type monoclonal B‐cell lymphocytosis patients from a single institution, with...

CART19 cells are emerging as an alternative therapy for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Here we report the outcome of nine consecutive patients with CLL treated with ARI-0001 CART19 cells, six of them with Richter’s transformation (RT). One patient with RT never received therapy. The cytokine release syndrome rate was 87.5% (12.5%...

Simple Summary TRBC1 expression analysis by flow cytometry (FCM) has been recently proved to be a useful, simple and fast approach to assessing Tαβ-cell clonality. The aim of this study was to validate the utility of this assay specifically for the diagnosis of T-cell clonality of T-large granular lymphocytic leukemias (T-LGLL), as more mature poly...

The Prognostic Nutritional Index (PNI), a parameter combining serum albumin concentration and absolute lymphocyte count, is considered a measure of the nutritional and inflammatory status and the host’s anti-tumor response. We analyzed the clinical characteristics and outcomes according to the PNI of 351 grades 1–3 A FL patients. Forty-one patients...

The FLIPI-L has recently been proposed as a novel prognostic index in follicular lymphoma (FL), combining FLIPI and the presence of lymphopenia. In our single-centre validation in 381 FL patients, lymphopenia was less frequent than in the original publication and thus the distribution of risk categories was different. Although it was not able to pr...

We describe 36 patients with splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) with transformation (SMZL‐T), including 15 from a series of 84 patients with SMZL diagnosed at the Hospital Clinic of Barcelona (HCB) and 21 diagnosed with SMZL‐T in other centres. In the HCB cohort, the cumulative incidence of transformation at 5 years was 15%. Predictors for trans...

With the intention of identifying follicular lymphoma (FL) patients at higher risk of progression, early relapse (POD24), histological transformation (HT) or death, multiple risk scores (RS) have been proposed. However, it has not yet been established whether any of them globally outperforms the others. We evaluated the clinical utility and statist...

A single antibody (anti-TRBC1; JOVI-1 antibody clone) against one of the two mutually exclusive T-cell receptor β-chain constant domains was identified as a potentially useful flow-cytometry (FCM) marker to assess Tαβ-cell clonality. We optimized the TRBC1-FCM approach for detecting clonal Tαβ-cells and validated the method in 211 normal, reactive...

T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia (T-LGLL) and chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer (NK) cells are two infrequent diseases characterized by clonal expansions of cytotoxic T lymphocytes and NK cells, respectively. Somatic mutations of STAT3 are involved in the pathogenesis of these entities. We describe the clinicobiologic...

The prognostic significance of lymphocyte doubling time (LDT) in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) was identified when the biology of the disease was poorly understood and therapy was not effective. We assessed the clinical and biological significance of LDT in 848 CLL patients in a real-life setting and the context of new biomarkers and effective...

Frailty and concurrent medical conditions are crucial factors in the management of follicular lymphoma (FL). We evaluated the impact of age and comorbidity on survival, causes of death, histological transformation (HT), and second malignancies (SM) in a large single-center series of grade 1-3A FL. We studied 414 patients diagnosed in the rituximab...

Simple Summary STAT3 and STAT5B mutations have been identified in a subset of T and NK large granular lymphocytic leukemia (T/NK-LGLL). The aim of our study was to evaluate the frequency and type of these mutations in all different subtypes of T/NK-LGL expansions (n = 100 patients), as well as to analyze its association with biological and clinical...

The presence of a serum monoclonal component has been associated with poor outcomes in some lymphomas. However, data in follicular lymphoma (FL) are scarce. We studied 311 FL patients diagnosed at a single institution, for whom information on serum immunofixation electrophoresis (sIFE) at diagnosis was available. Baseline characteristics and outcom...

Introduction Outcomes for follicular lymphoma (FL) patients are generally good. Clinical and biological variables have been studied to identify patients at higher risk of early relapse, which markedly impacts survival. However, the genetic landscape of FL according to its clinical behavior (need of treatment and timing of relapse) is not well chara...

Purpose: We analyzed the utility of cfDNA in a prospective population-based cohort to determine the mutational profile, assess tumor burden, and estimate its impact in response rate and outcome in patients with DLBCL. Experimental design: One-hundred patients were diagnosed with DLBCL during the study period. Mutational status of 112 genes was s...

The lymphocyte-to-monocyte ratio (LMR) is a prognostic factor in different neoplasms, but its potential importance in follicular lymphoma (FL) is not well defined. We studied 384 FL patients for which the LMR was available at diagnosis. Baseline features and outcomes were compared between patients with an LMR ≤/>2.5. The 76 patients (20%) who had a...

Immunoglobulin (Ig) gene rearrangements and oncogenic translocations are routinely assessed during the characterization of B cell neoplasms and stratification of patients with distinct clinical and biological features, with the assessment done using Sanger sequencing, targeted next-generation sequencing, or fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH)...

The clinical behavior of FL patients is heterogeneous. The levels of sIL-2R have been correlated with tumor burden and outcome in FL. However, the impact of IL-6 and TNF-α in this disease is unclear. We studied 253 patients diagnosed with grade 1-3a FL between 2002 and 2018, with available information on serum levels of sIL-2R, IL-6, and TNF-α at d...

Although the introduction of immunotherapy has improved outcomes for follicular lymphoma (FL) patients, histological transformation (HT) and early relapse still confer a poor prognosis. We sought to describe the patterns of change in treatment, response, and outcome of FL patients at our institution over the last four decades. Seven hundred and twe...

Targeting Notch signaling has emerged as a promising therapeutic strategy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), particularly in NOTCH1-mutated patients. We provide first evidence that the Notch ligand DLL4 is a potent stimulator of Notch signaling in NOTCH1-mutated CLL cells while increases cell proliferation. Importantly, DLL4 is expressed in hi...

Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) plays a critical role in Toll-like receptor (TLR) signal transduction and innate immune responses. Recruitment and subsequent activation of IRAK4 upon TLR stimulation is mediated by the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MYD88) adaptor protein. Around 3% of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (C...

Introduction: Previous studies have highlighted the potential of cell-free DNA (cfDNA) to assess the mutational profile and copy number alterations (CNA) in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), usually performed in tissue biopsies, both at diagnosis and relapse. In addition, the quantitative levels of cfDNA might be a surrogate of the lymphoma tu...

Introduction: Mature normal and tumor B cells express a unique rearranged immunoglobulin (IG) gene that can be used as a marker of the clonal expansion of the cell. Somatic hypermutation (SHM) in the V(D)J region of IG genes are acquired in the germinal center and are a surrogate imprint of the cell of origin of lymphoid neoplasms. In chronic lymph...

BACKGROUND: The clinical course of splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) is usually indolent, but development of transformation to aggressive lymphoma (SMZL-T) is seen in 10 to 15% of the cases. Risk factors to predict SMZL-T are poorly defined. AIM: The aims of our study were: 1.- to assess the risk of transformation in a large series of SMZL pati...

Introduction. Nucleophosmin gene mutation (NPM1mut) occurs in around 30% of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, frequently linked with favourable prognosis in the absence of FLT3-ITDmut, which occurs in around 40% of NPM1mutAML. Therefore, more expeditious diagnostic approaches may contribute to early diagnosis and prognostic stratification of t...

Background: The role of CD200 in the differential diagnosis of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and classical mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) is well established. Its role in the differential diagnosis of CLL and other lymphoproliferative disorders (LPD) is less clear, in particular its positive predictive value (PPV). Materials and methods: We con...

Background Interleukin‐1 receptor‐associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) plays a critical role in Toll‐like receptor (TLR) signal transduction and innate immune responses. Recruitment and subsequent activation of IRAK4 upon TLR stimulation is mediated by the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MYD88) adaptor protein. Around 3% of chronic lymphocytic...

Background Follicular lymphoma (FL), the most frequent type of indolent non Hodgkin lymphoma, exhibits a heterogeneous clinical behavior. Predictive biological variables are eagerly sought, in an effort to better anticipate outcomes for each individual patient. Cytokines are small proteins involved in cell signaling and immune regulation. The level...

The microenvironment influences the behavior of follicular lymphoma (FL) but the specific roles of the immunomodulatory BTLA and TNFRSF14 (HVEM) are unknown. Therefore, we examined their immunohistochemical expression in the intrafollicular, interfollicular and total histological compartments in 106 FL cases (57M/49F; median age 57-years), and in n...

Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent disease characterized by long survival but frequent relapses. Before the introduction of rituximab, the clinical course of these patients showed a shorter response duration (RD) after each relapse. In this study, we analysed if this pattern of shortened responses remains in patients treated in the rituximab e...

Interleukin-1 receptor-associated kinase 4 (IRAK4) plays a critical role in Toll-like receptor (TLR) signal transduction and the innate immune responses. Recruitment and subsequent activation of IRAK4 upon TLR stimulation is mediatedby the myeloid differentiation primary response 88 (MYD88) adaptor protein. Around 5% of chronic lymphocytic leukemia...

The Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor ibrutinib has been shown to be highly effective in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and is approved for CLL treatment. Unfortunately, resistance and intolerance to ibrutinib has been observed in several studies, opening the door for more specific BTK inhibitors. CC‐292 (spebrutinib) is a...

Mutations in genes of the RAS-BRAF-MAPK-ERK pathway have not been fully explored in chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. To provide a better comprehension, we analyzed the clinical and biological characteristics of patients with mutations in this pathway and investigated the in vitro response of primary cells to BRAF and ERK inhibitors. Putative...

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients with differential somatic hypermutation status of the immunoglobulin heavy variable genes, namely mutated or unmutated, display fundamental clinicobiological differences. Considering this, we assessed prognosis separately within mutated and unmutated chronic lymphocytic leukemia in 3015 patients, hypothesizing...

Genomic studies have recently identified RPS15 as a new driver gene in aggressive and chemorefractory cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). RPS15 encodes a ribosomal protein whose conserved C-terminal domain extends into the decoding center of the ribosome. We demonstrate that mutations in highly conserved residues of this domain affect both...

This study examined the impact of prednisone (PDN) on CMV infection after allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo-SCT) according to donor (D) and recipient (R) CMV serostatus. Seventy-five patients underwent allo-SCT from June 2010 to July 2012. The risk of CMV infection according to D and R serostatus was defined as follows: high risk (HR) (D-/...

Genome studies of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) have revealed the remarkable subclonal heterogeneity of the tumors, but the clinical implications of this phenomenon are not well known. We assessed the mutational status of 28 CLL driver genes by deep-targeted next-generation sequencing and copy number alterations (CNA) in 406 previously untreat...

Small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) is considered as the non-leukemic form of presentation of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). We have compared the features, genomic alterations, and outcome of 890 patients with CLL and SLL. One hundred and thirteen patients presented as SLL and more frequently had unmutated-IGHV, CD38high, ZAP-70high, CD49dhigh, +...

The diagnostic criteria for CLL rely on morphology and immunophenotype. Current approaches have limitations affecting reproducibility and there is no consensus on the role of new markers. The aim of this project was to identify reproducible criteria and consensus on markers recommended for the diagnosis of CLL. ERIC/ESCCA members classified 14 of 3...

Background: The co-existence at diagnosis of follicular lymphoma (FL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) components (FL/DLBCL) has been considered a transformed lymphoma and accordingly treated although clinicobiological information on these patients is scarce. The aim of this study was to analyze the initial features and outcome of FL/DLBC...

The fluorescence detected using fluorochrome-labelled monoclonal antibodies depends not only on the abundance of the target antigen, but amongst many other factors also on the effective fluorochrome-to-antibody ratio. The diagnostic approach of the EuroFlow consortium relies on reproducible fluorescence intensities over time. A capture bead system...

Introduction Recent large scale genomic studies have disclosed the heterogeneity of the mutational landscape of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The remarkable genomic plasticity of this disease has been further emphasized by the complex subclonal composition recognized in some tumors. Initial studies using high-coverage next generation sequenci...

Introduction: Histological transformation into an aggressive lymphoma, usually DLBCL, may occur during the follow-up of FL patients and determines a poor outcome. The presence of a DLBCL component in a FL (FL/DLBCL) is observed in some cases at diagnosis, usually being considered a transformation of a FL with a previously undetected indolent course...

The classification of CLL patients according to the somatic hypermutation status (SHM) of the immunoglobulin heavy variable (IGHV) genes, namely mutated (MCLL) versus unmutated (UCLL), reflects fundamental differences in disease biology and clinical course. Realizing this, here we followed a compartmentalized approach and addressed the issue of pro...

The classification of CLL patients according to the somatic hypermutation status (SHM) of the immunoglobulin heavy variable (IGHV) genes, namely mutated (M-CLL) versus unmutated (U-CLL), reflects fundamental differences in disease biology and clinical course. Realizing this, here we followed a compartmentalized approach and addressed the issue of p...

Purpose: To establish a proof-of-concept for the efficacy of the anti-CD38 antibody daratumumab in the poor prognosis CD38+ CLL subtype. Experimental design: The mechanism of action of daratumumab was assessed in CLL primary cells and cell lines using peripheral blood mononuclear cells to analyze antibody-dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC), muri...

We have analyzed in lymph nodes at diagnosis of 75 patients with follicular lymphoma (FL) the relationship between different T-cell subpopulations, assessed by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and flow cytometry (FC), with the outcome. CD4⁺ cells were the most abundant T-cells in tumor tissue sections, whilst CD57⁺ cells were the less frequent. In additi...

Next-generation sequencing provides a comprehensive understanding of the genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic underpinnings of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Recent studies have uncovered new drivers, including mutations in non-coding regions, and signalling pathways whose role in cancer was previously unknown or poorly understood. Moreover, mass...

Why focus on chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL): The most common adult leukemia in the West (11000 diagnoses/year in Europe). Remarkable clinical heterogeneity: urgent need for robust prognostication. Chronic disease: rendering personalized medicine an ideal objective. Research Objectives of CLLassify: Refined classification for CLL patients. Appli...

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is a frequent disease in which the genetic alterations determining the clinicobiological behaviour are not fully understood. Here we describe a comprehensive evaluation of the genomic landscape of 452 CLL cases and 54 patients with monoclonal B-lymphocytosis, a precursor disorder. We extend the number of CLL driv...

Bone Marrow Transplantation is a high quality, peer-reviewed journal covering all aspects of clinical and basic haemopoietic stem cell transplantation.

Key Points Clonal and subclonal mutations of NOTCH1 and TP53, clonal mutations of SF3B1, and ATM mutations in CLL have an impact on clinical outcome. Clonal evolution in longitudinal samples occurs before and after treatment and may have an unfavorable impact on overall survival.

Purpose: Mutations in MYD88 are found in different lymphoproliferative disorders associated with particular biological characteristics and clinical impact. The aim of this study was to analyze the incidence of MYD88 mutations and its clinical impact in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Experimental design: The incidence, clinico-biological...

Clinical responses to bendamustine in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) are highly heterogeneous and no specific markers to predict sensitivity to this drug have been reported. In order to identify biomarkers of response, we analyzed the in vitro activity of bendamustine and the gene expression profile in primary CLL cells. We observed that mRNA e...

In chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) the level of minimal residual disease (MRD) after therapy is an independent predictor of outcome. Given the increasing number of new agents being explored for CLL therapy, using MRD as surrogate could greatly reduce the time necessary to assess their efficacy. In this ERIC project we have identified and validat...

Leukemic B-cell chronic lymphoproliferative disorders (B-CLPD) encompass a heterogeneous group of defined disease entities. However, around 10% of the cases cannot be reliably classified based on the current criteria and are considered B-CLPD not otherwise specified (B-CLPD NOS). Few recurrent mutations and genetic alterations have been reported in...

Genomic studies have provided a complete profile of somatic mutations in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). These comprehensive approaches have revealed a relatively large number of mutated genes, the adverse prognostic value of some of which has been demonstrated in a number of reports. Recent studies have shown the clinical relevance of TP53 mut...

We investigated CD49d (also termed ITGA4) expression and its biological and clinical correlations in 415 patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. CD49d expression was stable over the course of the disease. A high expression of CD49d (>30%) was found in 142/415 (34%) patients and was associated with progressive disease (advanced clinical stage,...

Supporting Information Table S2

Supporting Information

Splenic diffuse red pulp small B-cell lymphoma (SDRPL) is considered an indolent neoplasm and its pathogenesis is not well known. We investigated the molecular characteristics of 19 SDRPL patients, 5 of them with progressive disease. IGHV genes were mutated in 9/13 (69%). Cytogenetic and molecular studies identified complex karyotypes in 2 cases, a...