Evidence for distinct human cancer stem cells (CSCs) remains contentious and the degree to which different cancer cells contribute to propagating malignancies in patients remains unexplored. In low- to intermediate-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS), we establish the existence of rare multipotent MDS stem cells (MDS-SCs), and their hierarchical relationship to lineage-restricted MDS progenitors. All identified somatically acquired genetic lesions were backtracked to distinct MDS-SCs, establishing their distinct MDS-propagating function in vivo. In isolated del(5q)-MDS, acquisition of del(5q) preceded diverse recurrent driver mutations. Sequential analysis in del(5q)-MDS revealed genetic evolution in MDS-SCs and MDS-progenitors prior to leukemic transformation. These findings provide definitive evidence for rare human MDS-SCs in vivo, with extensive implications for the targeting of the cells required and sufficient for MDS-propagation.
Woll, P. S., Kjällquist, U., Chowdhury, O., Doolittle, H., Wedge, D. C., Thongjuea, S., Erlandsson, R., Ngara, M., Anderson, K., Deng, Q., Mead, A. J., Stenson, L., Giustacchini, A., Duarte, S., Giannoulatou, E., Taylor, S., Karimi, M., Scharenberg, C., Mortera-Blanco, T., et al. (2014). Myelodysplastic syndromes are propagated by rare and distinct human cancer stem cells in vivo. Cancer Cell, 25(6), 794-808. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ccr.2014.03.036 (Original work published 2014)