DNA changes can signal blood cancer progression years before routine blood tests

DNA patterns in some blood cancers may signal trouble years before routine blood tests catch a change, according to research published in Cancer Discovery and reported by Fox News.

Scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute followed 30 people with myeloproliferative neoplasms, or MPNs, a group of blood cancers in which bone marrow makes too many blood cells. They tracked genetic changes in blood and bone marrow and compared those patterns with stable disease or progression to myelofibrosis or acute leukemia.

Patients who stayed stable often showed genetically quiet disease with little cancer-related DNA change over time. Patients whose disease worsened often developed new groups of abnormal cells years before standard blood counts flagged progression.

Nine participants later developed acute myeloid leukemia, but not all followed the same path. In some, MPN cells piled up harmful mutations. In others, leukemia appeared to arise from a separate abnormal cell group. Similar differences showed up in people who developed myelofibrosis.

Researchers also found that hydroxyurea, a common drug used to control blood counts in MPN, leaves a recognizable pattern of small DNA changes. They reported no evidence that the drug itself causes leukemia. A similar pattern was linked to azacitidine, used in some blood cancers.

Three people diagnosed with triple-negative essential thrombocythemia showed no genetic signs of cancer in their samples. That finding raises the possibility that some patients labeled with that condition may not have a malignant disease and may not need long-term cancer therapy.

The sample was small and shows association rather than proven cause. Orlando Health oncologist Abhishek Chilkulwar, who was not on the study team, told Fox News Digital the results are a striking demonstration that DNA may reveal a cancer path long before symptoms. Most people with MPNs can live with them for decades, he noted, which makes smarter monitoring especially valuable.