IN THE SPOTLIGHT Fingerprinting Acute Leukemia: DNA Methylation Profi ling of B-Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Summary: In this issue of Cancer Discovery , Geng and colleagues report on their use of a combination of promoter cytosine methylation profi ling with gene expression and ChIP sequencing to elucidate molecular signatures of adult B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia patient samples with BCR–ABL1, E2A–PBX1, and MLL rearrangements. The unique epigenetic and gene expression signatures of these clinically unfavorable B-ALL subtypes identify novel biomarkers and provide a strong rationale for repurposing existing therapies to treat these molecularly distinct diseases. Cancer Discov; 2(11); 976–8. ©2012 AACR.