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Updated: Jul 13, 2026

Identifying DNA Mutations in Purified Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells
Published on: February 24, 2014
Emergence of genetic instability in children treated for leukemia
B A Finette1, A C Homans, R J Albertini
1Department of Pediatrics, Vermont Cancer Center, University of Vermont, Medical Alumni Building, Burlington, VT 05405, USA. finette@salus.med.uvm.edu
Abstract:
T cells from patients who had received chemotherapy for B-lineage acute lymphocytic leukemia were studied to determine whether genetic instability, a principal characteristic of cancer cells, can also occur in nonmalignant cells. Consistent with expectations for a genetic instability phenotype, multiple mutations were detected in the hypoxanthine-guanine phosphoribosyltransferase (HPRT) reporter gene in independently isolated mutant T cells expressing identical rearranged T cell receptor beta (TCRbeta) gene hypervariable regions. These results indicate that cancer treatment can lead to genetic instability in nonmalignant cells in some individuals. They also suggest a mechanistic paradigm for the induction of second malignancies and drug resistance.
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