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September marks Blood Cancer Awareness Month. In recognition of this, we are proud to present some of our research on blood cancer that has been published within the open access oncology journal portfolio.

Blood cancer encompasses many different hematological disorders that affect the blood, bone marrow and/or lymphatic system. The different types of blood cancer can be grouped into the following categories: leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma. It is estimated that in the US, a person is diagnosed with blood cancer every three minutes. Leukemia is a global problem and is currently ranked the 13^th most common cancer worldwide.

If you would like to go back to basics with an overview of the classification and laboratory investigation of blood cancers, click here to read our ‘Blood cancer in a nutshell: Classification and investigation’ blog.

As a global health issue, continued research on blood cancer is of paramount significance with particular reference to risk assessment and prognostics, diagnostics, genetics, clinical trials and therapeutics. The articles in this collection have been curated by our oncology journal editors and include some of the latest research in the field in each of these categories.

 Risk assessment and prognostics

Association of elevated serumfree light chains with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis

Clinical predictors of long-term survival in newly diagnosed transplant eligible multiple myeloma — an IMWG Research Project

Down-regulation of miR-29c is a prognostic biomarker in acute myeloid leukemia and can reduce the sensitivity of leukemic cells to decitabine

Late relapse in acute myeloid leukemia (AML): clonal evolution or therapy-related leukemia?

Management of cardiovascular risk in patients with multiple myeloma

Polyclonal serum free light chain elevation is associated with increased risk of monoclonal gammopathies

The assessment of minimal residual disease versus that of somatic mutations for predicting the outcome of acute myeloid leukemia patients

Diagnostics

Challenges in the introduction of next-generation sequencing (NGS) for diagnostics of myeloid malignancies into clinical routine use

Elevated IgM and abnormal free light chain ratio are increased in relatives from high-risk chronic lymphocytic leukemia pedigrees

Identification of ADGRE5 as discriminating MYC target between Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Lymphopenia at diagnosis is highly prevalent in myelodysplastic syndromes and has an independent negative prognostic value in IPSS-R-low-risk patients

Molecular tumor analysis and liquid biopsy: a feasibility investigation analyzing circulating tumor DNA in patients with central nervous system lymphomas

Role of microRNAs, circRNAs and long noncoding RNAs in acute myeloid leukemia

T cell senescence and CAR-T cell exhaustion in hematological malignancies

Genetics

A modular transcriptome map of mature B cell lymphomas

Amplification of 9p24.1 in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma identifies a unique subset of cases that resemble primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma

An acquired high-risk chromosome instability phenotype in multiple myeloma: Jumping 1q Syndrome

An age-based, RNA expression paradigm for survival biomarker identification for pediatric neuroblastoma and acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Deciphering the chronology of copy number alterations in Multiple Myeloma

Distinct promoter methylation profile reveals spatial epigenetic heterogeneity in 2 myeloma patients with multifocal extramedullary relapses

Epigenetic silencing of miR-340-5p in multiple myeloma: mechanisms and prognostic impact

Genetic correlation between multiple myeloma and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia provides evidence for shared aetiology

Genomic and epigenomic predictors of response to guadecitabine in relapsed/refractory acute myelogenous leukemia

Identification of genetic association between cardiorespiratory fitness and the trainability genes in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia survivors

Immunoglobulin gene rearrangement IGHV3-48 is a predictive marker of histological transformation into aggressive lymphoma in follicular lymphomas

Long non-coding RNAs in hematological malignancies: translating basic techniques into diagnostic and therapeutic strategies

Mutational processes contributing to the development of multiple myeloma

The anticancer effects of MPT0G211, a novel HDAC6 inhibitor, combined with chemotherapeutic agents in human acute leukemia cells

Clinical trials

A randomised phase II trial of selinexor with cyclophosphamide and prednisolone in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma (RRMM) patients

Interpreting clinical trial data in multiple myeloma: translating findings to the real-world setting

PERCEPT – myeloma transplant prehab study

RIVA – a phase IIa study of rituximab and varlilumab in relapsed or refractory B-cell malignancies: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Therapeutics

Current status of autologous stem cell transplantation for multiple myeloma

EZH2 as a therapeutic target for multiple myeloma and other haematological malignancies

Functional diversity of inhibitors tackling the differentiation blockage of MLL-rearranged leukemia

Inotuzumab ozogamicin in clinical development for acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma

Integrating precision medicine through evaluation of cell of origin in treatment planning for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Micafungin prophylaxis for acute leukemia patients undergoing induction chemotherapy

Novel and emerging therapies for B cell lymphoma

Super-enhancers: critical roles and therapeutic targets in hematologic malignancies

Targeting CLL-1 for acute myeloid leukemia therapy

The journey to CAR T cell therapy: the pediatric and young adult experience with relapsed or refractory B-ALL

Articles from the following journals have been included in this collection: Biomarker Research / BMC Cancer / Cancer Cell International / Clinical Epigenetics / Blood Cancer Journal / Genome Medicine / ISRCTN Registry / Journal of Hematology & Oncology / Trials

Now that you have read the research, why not test your knowledge of blood cancer morphology with our Blood Cancer Quiz?