Acute Leukemia

On the brink of losing her battle with acute myeloid leukemia, Shannon Camlek arrived at Mayo Clinic as a last hope. Her chances didn’t look good, but with the help of specialized genetic testing, particularly FISH (fluorescence in situ hybridization) studies, doctors were able to detect the specific gene mutations responsible for her symptoms and disease. The test results also helped Shannon’s care team target her treatment accordingly, and finally put an end to what Shannon likens as starring in her own personal horror movie while in search of hope and healing.

In this month's "Hot Topic," David Viswanatha, M.D., discusses updates to Mayo Clinic's next-generation sequencing (NGS) for myeloid neoplasm evaluation, involving new test targets, the rationale for new genetic regions, alignments with the World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines and germline predisposition targets.

In this month's "Hot Topic," Jess Peterson, M.D., discusses changes to Mayo Clinic Laboratories’ hematology FISH menu to increase awareness, provide reasoning, and highlight some of the great things that are coming.

This algorithm can be viewed here.