key: cord-0047926-s2fwm1i1
authors: Tesio, Melania
title: Patrolling Monocytes Watch Over Relapse
date: 2020-07-21
journal: Hemasphere
DOI: 10.1097/hs9.0000000000000451
sha: ed5f83dc1f7cc94102781ff70051b52197751674
doc_id: 47926
cord_uid: s2fwm1i1

nan

with absolute monocytosis at disease diagnosis, independent of other risk factors. Similarly, a high-monocytes abundance predicted inferior overall survival and relapse-free survival in adult B-ALL patients.

Taken together, the findings by Witkowski et al are intriguing and important as relapse remains a major medical challenge especially when it comes to pediatric patients. Yet, a few aspects, which remained unanswered, worth further investigations. How exactly non-classical monocytes promote relapse? Exploring if and how these cells promote the survival of rare dormant B-ALL cells 6 and/or the clonal evolution of leukemia might provide interesting answers to this important question. Future studies will also be needed to further characterize the cross-talk potentially linking B-ALL blasts, endothelium and monocytes during leukemia progression and to identify the crucial players orchestrating this process. Understanding these issues may provide attractive therapeutic targets for preventing disease progression and /or relapse. (1), induce the emergency of nonclassical monocytes (2) which facilitate leukemia progression and relapse (3) . High monocytes abundance in this model is a negative prognostic factor in both adult and pediatric patients.

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