Publications by authors named "Anne J Novak"

The role of the bone marrow (BM) microenvironment in regulating the antitumor immune response in Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia (WM) remains poorly understood. Here we transcriptionally and phenotypically profiled non-malignant (CD19 CD138) BM cells from WM patients with a focus on myeloid derived suppressive cells (MDSCs) to provide a deeper understanding of their role in WM. We found that HLA-DRCD11bCD33 MDSCs were significantly increased in WM patients as compared to normal controls, with an expansion of predominantly polymorphonuclear (PMN)-MDSCs.

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Lymphoma is one of the leading causes of cancer and cancer deaths and yet has not been amenable to population screening. The role of methylated DNA markers (MDMs) in the detection of lymphoma has not been extensively studied. We aimed to discover, validate, and test tissue-derived MDMs of lymphoma in archival plasma specimens.

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This study sheds light on the pivotal role of the oncoprotein DEK in B-cell lymphoma. We reveal DEK expression correlates with increased tumor proliferation and inferior overall survival in cases diagnosed with low-grade B-cell lymphoma (LGBCL). We also found significant correlation between DEK expression and copy number alterations in LGBCL tumors, highlighting a novel mechanism of LGBCL pathogenesis that warrants additional exploration.

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Article Synopsis
  • Immunochemotherapy is currently the primary treatment for newly diagnosed diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (ndDLBCL), but it's ineffective for some patients, prompting research into better prognostic methods.
  • By analyzing transcriptomic data from a large group of patients, researchers identified seven distinct clusters of ndDLBCL, with one specific cluster (A7) linked to poorer outcomes due to characteristics like low immune cell presence and high MYC expression.
  • The study also explores how certain drugs, like lenalidomide, may improve treatment for the high-risk A7 cluster by enhancing T-cell movement into tumors and the expression of key tumor markers, while identifying TCF4 as a crucial factor in MYC biology for this group.
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Currently, the role of DNA methylation in the immunoglobulin M (IgM) monoclonal gammopathy disease spectrum remains poorly understood. In the present study, a multiomics prospective analysis was conducted integrating DNA methylation, RNA sequencing (RNA-seq), and whole-exome sequencing data in 34 subjects (23 with Waldenström macroglobulinemia [WM], 6 with IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance [MGUS], and 5 normal controls). Analysis was focused on defining differences between IgM gammopathies (WM/IgM-MGUS) compared with controls, and specifically between WM and IgM-MGUS.

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Article Synopsis
  • * Researchers used a multiomic approach on tumor samples from 444 newly diagnosed DLBCL patients, combining gene analysis methods to identify a signature predictive of high early clinical failure risk.
  • * The study found that this signature, which includes ARID1A mutations, accurately predicted 45% of early clinical failures and could significantly influence future treatment strategies.
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Follicular lymphoma (FL) is an indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma of germinal center origin, which presents with significant biologic and clinical heterogeneity. Using RNA-seq on B cells sorted from 87 FL biopsies, combined with machine-learning approaches, we identify 3 transcriptional states that divide the biological ontology of FL B cells into inflamed, proliferative, and chromatin-modifying states, with relationship to prior GC B cell phenotypes. When integrated with whole-exome sequencing and immune profiling, we find that each state was associated with a combination of mutations in chromatin modifiers, copy-number alterations to TNFAIP3, and T follicular helper cells (Tfh) cell interactions, or primarily by a microenvironment rich in activated T cells.

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Article Synopsis
  • A study was conducted on diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) patients to identify a genetic signature that predicts those at high risk of early clinical failure (EFS24), addressing a need for better treatment selection.
  • Analysis involved tumor biopsies from 444 newly diagnosed patients using whole exome sequencing (WES) and RNA sequencing, leading to the identification of a high-risk RNA signature significantly linked to poor outcomes.
  • Integrating genomic data showed that including mutations in the signature could identify 45% of cases with early clinical failure, marking a significant advancement for potential therapeutic strategies for DLBCL.
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Non-follicular low-grade B-cell lymphomas (LGBCL) are biologically diverse entities that share clinical and histologic features that make definitive pathologic categorization challenging. While most patients with LGBCL have an indolent course, some experience aggressive disease, highlighting additional heterogeneity across these subtypes. To investigate the potential for shared biology across subtypes, we performed RNA sequencing and applied machine learning approaches that identified five clusters of patients that grouped independently of subtype.

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How to identify follicular lymphoma (FL) patients with low disease burden but high risk for early progression is unclear. Building on a prior study demonstrating the early transformation of FLs with high variant allele frequency (VAF) BCL2 mutations at activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AICDA) sites, we examined 11 AICDA mutational targets, including BCL2, BCL6, PAX5, PIM1, RHOH, SOCS, and MYC, in 199 newly diagnosed grade 1 and 2 FLs. BCL2 mutations with VAF ≥20% occurred in 52% of cases.

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  • Researchers studied spleens from patients with splenic marginal zone lymphoma (sMZL) to understand how the environment around the tumors affects immune cells, especially T cells.
  • They discovered that the tumor environment in sMZL is different from healthy spleen tissue, with more certain types of T cells present and a connection to memory B cells.
  • They found that many of the T cells in the tumors were exhausted and not working properly, which suggests that this fatigue in immune cells is a big problem for fighting the cancer.
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Article Synopsis
  • - The study investigates the differences between IgM monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) and Waldenström macroglobulinemia (WM) to better explain their varied treatments and clinical behaviors beyond current classifications.
  • - Researchers analyzed samples from 32 patients using a comprehensive multi-omics approach, revealing three distinct molecular clusters with unique characteristics and outcomes: one solely for WM, one combining both MGUS and WM, and a third with mixed features.
  • - The findings suggest a new biological classification system based on the identified clusters, which could lead to improved therapeutic strategies tailored to the specific characteristics of each patient's condition.
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  • * The study analyzed data from over 10,000 NHL cases and used advanced statistical methods to find 17 significant genetic loci linked to NHL subtypes, including a new one at HHEX.
  • * Results show that while there is some shared genetic heritability among NHL subtypes, each subtype has unique genetic characteristics, with varying degrees of genetic correlation between them.
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Low-grade B-cell lymphomas other than follicular and small lymphocytic lymphoma (LGBCL) account for 10% of all B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. Despite improvements in survival outcomes for these patients, little is known about cause of death (COD) in the rituximab era. For a better understanding, we studied 822 newly diagnosed patients with marginal zone, lymphoplasmacytic, and unclassifiable low-grade B-cell lymphoma prospectively enrolled in the University of Iowa/Mayo Clinic Specialized Program of Research Excellence Molecular Epidemiology Resource from 2002 to 2015.

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Purpose: Regulatory T-cells (Treg) are essential to Tregs homeostasis and modulate the antitumor immune response in patients with lymphoma. However, the biology and prognostic impact of Tregs in splenic marginal zone lymphoma (SMZL) have not been studied.

Experimental Design: Biopsy specimens from 24 patients with SMZL and 12 reactive spleens (rSP) from individuals without lymphoma were analyzed by using CITE-seq (cellular indexing of transcriptomes and epitopes by sequencing), CyTOF (mass cytometry) analysis, and flow cytometry to explore the phenotype, transcriptomic profile, and clinical significance of intratumoral Tregs and their subsets.

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Background: Vaccinations have been hypothesized to play a role in lymphoma etiology, but there are few studies, mixed results, and limited data on lymphoma subtypes. Herein, we investigate the association of vaccinations with risk of major lymphoma subtypes.

Methods: We studied 2,461 lymphoma cases and 2,253 controls enrolled from 2002 to 2014.

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Despite a characteristic indolent course, a substantial subset of follicular lymphoma (FL) patients has an early relapse with a poor outcome. Cells in the microenvironment may be a key contributor to treatment failure. We used a discovery and validation study design to identify microenvironmental determinants of early failure and then integrated these results into the FLIPI.

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Background: CD8 T-lymphocyte subsets defined by killer lectin-like receptor G1 (KLRG1) and CD127 expression have been reported to have an important role in infection, but their role in the setting of lymphoid malignancies, specifically follicular lymphoma (FL), has not been studied.

Methods: To characterize the phenotype of KLRG1/CD127-defined CD8 subsets, surface and intracellular markers were measured by flow cytometry and Cytometry by time of flight (CyTOF), and the transcriptional profile of these cells was determined by CITE-Seq (Cellular Indexing of Transcriptomes and Epitopes by Sequencing). The functional capacity of each subset was determined, as was their impact on overall survival (OS) and event-free survival (EFS) of patients with FL.

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The molecular events that modulate the progression of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance of the immunoglobulin M class (IgM-MGUS) to Waldenstrom Macroglobulinemia (WM) are mostly unknown. We implemented comparative proteomics and metabolomics analyses on patient serum samples to identify differentially expressed molecules crucial to the progression from IgM-MGUS to WM. Our data identified altered lipid metabolism as a discriminating factor between MGUS, WM, and matched normal controls.

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TNFα is implicated in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) immunosuppression and disease progression. TNFα is constitutively produced by CLL B cells and is a negative regulator of bone marrow (BM) myelopoiesis. Here, we show that co-culture of CLL B cells with purified normal human hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) directly altered protein levels of the myeloid and erythroid cell fate determinants PU.

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