AUTHOR=Tan Shi Hao , Bertulfo Fatima Carla , Sanda Takaomi 

TITLE=Leukemia-Initiating Cells in T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2017

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2017.00218

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2017.00218

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=<p>T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is a hematological malignancy characterized by the clonal proliferation of immature T-cell precursors. T-ALL has many similar pathophysiological features to acute myeloid leukemia, which has been extensively studied in the establishment of the cancer stem cell (CSC) theory, but the CSC concept in T-ALL is still debatable. Although leukemia-initiating cells (LICs), which can generate leukemia in a xenograft setting, have been found in both human T-ALL patients and animal models, the nature and origin of LICs are largely unknown. In this review, we discuss recent studies on LICs in T-ALL and the potential mechanisms of LIC emergence in this disease. We focus on the oncogenic transcription factors <italic>TAL1, LMO2</italic>, and <italic>NOTCH1</italic> and highlight the significance of the transcriptional regulatory programs in normal hematopoietic stem cells and T-ALL.</p>