Clonal Hematopoiesis in Cancer

Overview Clonal hematopoiesis represents a precursor syndrome to development of hematologic malignancy. The discovery of clonal hematopoiesis resulted from improvement in next‐generation sequencing that allows identification of low‐variant allele frequency mutations in select genes that provide hematopoietic stem cells a growth advantage over time as compared to un‐mutated stem cells. Clonal hematopoiesis results from acquisition of mutations over time in hematopoietic stem cells as individuals age. Clonal hematopoiesis is not only a risk factor for the development of hematologic malignancies but also to many other processes involving inflammation that ultimately have the potential to impact patient survival. Strategies to both utilize the presence of clonal hematopoiesis in risk assessment for cancer, cardiovascular mortality, and to potentially intervene to prevent these outcomes yet to be developed.