Increased Local Disorder Of Dna Methylation Forms The Basis Of High Intra-Leukemic Epigenetic Heterogeneity And Enhances Cll Evolution

We recently demonstrated that genetic heterogeneity contributes to evolution and clinical outcome in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) (Landau et al., Cell 2013). As both genetic and epigenetic alterations contribute to the cellular phenotype and its fitness for selection, we hypothesized that heterogeneity in DNA methylation impacts leukemic evolution as well.