The analysis of clonal diversity and therapy responses using STAT3 mutations as a molecular marker in large granular lymphocytic leukemia

T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia and chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer cells are intriguing entities between benign and malignant lymphoproliferation. The molecular pathogenesis has partly been uncovered by the recent discovery of somatic activating STAT3 and STAT5b mutations. Here we show that 43% (75/174) of patients with T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukemia and 18% (7/39) with chronic lymphoproliferative disorder of natural killer cells harbor STAT3 mutations when analyzed by quantitative deep amplicon sequencing. Surprisingly, 17% of the STAT3-mutated patients carried multiple STAT3 mutations, which were located in different lymphocyte clones. The size of the mutated clone correlated well with the degree of clonal expansion of the T-cell repertoire analyzed by T-cell receptor beta chain deep sequencing. The analysis of sequential samples suggested that current immunosuppressive therapy is not able to reduce the level of the mutated clone in most cases, thus warranting the search for novel targeted therapies. Our findings imply that the clonal landscape of large granular lymphocytic leukemia is more complex than considered before, and a substantial number of patients have multiple lymphocyte subclones harboring different STAT3 mutations, thus mimicking the situation in acute leukemia.