Comprehensive Analysis of Acquired Genetic Variants and Their Prognostic Impact in Systemic Mastocytosis

Simple Summary Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a clonal haematopoietic stem cell disease typically characterized by the expansion and accumulation of neoplastic mast cells carrying the activating KIT D816V as a driver mutation. Multilineage involvement of haematopoiesis by this KIT mutation, particularly in a multi-mutated context, also involving other genes (e.g., SRSF2, ASXL1, DNMT3A, RUNX1, EZH2, CBL and NRAS) found to be frequently mutated in other myeloid neoplasms, have recently emerged as a genetic background associated with malignant transformation of SM. Therefore, assessment of multilineage involvement of haematopoiesis by KIT D816V and additional mutations in genes known to be associated with the prognosis of SM have become of great help to identify good vs. poor-prognosis SM patients who could benefit from a closer follow-up and, eventually, also early cytoreductive treatment. Systemic mastocytosis (SM) is a rare clonal haematopoietic stem cell disease in which activating KIT mutations (most commonly KIT D816V) are present in virtually every (>90%) adult patient at similar frequencies among non-advanced and advanced forms of SM. The KIT D816V mutation is considered the most common pathogenic driver of SM. Acquisition of this mutation early during haematopoiesis may cause multilineage involvement of haematopoiesis by KIT D816V, which has been associated with higher tumour burden and additional mutations in other genes, leading to an increased rate of transformation to advanced SM. Thus, among other mutations, alterations in around 30 genes that are also frequently mutated in other myeloid neoplasms have been reported in SM cases. From these genes, 12 (i.e., ASXL1, CBL, DNMT3A, EZH2, JAK2, KRAS, NRAS, SF3B1, RUNX1, SF3B1, SRSF2, TET2) have been recurrently reported to be mutated in SM. Because of all the above, assessment of multilineage involvement of haematopoiesis by the KIT D816V mutation, in the setting of multi-mutated haematopoiesis as revealed by a limited panel of genes (i.e., ASXL1, CBL, DNMT3A, EZH2, NRAS, RUNX1 and SRSF2) and associated with a poorer patient outcome, has become of great help to identify SM patients at higher risk of disease progression and/or poor survival who could benefit from closer follow-up and eventually also early cytoreductive treatment.