Evidence map›Paper›PMID 42257444›Full record

ArticleJournal of clinical laboratory analysis2026

Not Missing the Notch: Detection Challenges of Juxtamembrane NOTCH1 Variant Detection in T-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Francisco Beas, Stephan Hutter, Ferran Balbastre-Úbeda, Sandra Novoa-Jáuregui, Maria Gabarrós-Subirà, Eulalia Genescà, Petri Pölönen, Torsten Haferlach, Andrés Jerez

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In one paragraph

Article in Journal of clinical laboratory analysis, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.

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1 · What the graph read from it

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2 · The registry

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3 · Its place in the literature

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4 · The record

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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Francisco BeasDepartment of Hematology, Hospital Universitari Vall D'hebron (HUVH), experimental Hematology, Vall D'hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9907-0556
Stephan HutterMLL Munich Leukemia Laboratory, Munich, Germany.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2432-8898
Ferran Balbastre-ÚbedaDepartment of Hematology, Hospital Universitari Vall D'hebron (HUVH), experimental Hematology, Vall D'hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Sandra Novoa-JáureguiDepartment of Hematology, Hospital Universitari Vall D'hebron (HUVH), experimental Hematology, Vall D'hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Maria Gabarrós-SubiràDepartment of Hematology, Hospital Universitari Vall D'hebron (HUVH), experimental Hematology, Vall D'hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
Eulalia GenescàInstitut D'investigació Contra la Leucemia Josep Carreras (IJC), campus ICO-Germans Trias i Pujol, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Badalona Spain, Barcelona, Spain.
Petri PölönenSt. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, USA.
Torsten HaferlachMLL Munich Leukemia Laboratory, Munich, Germany.
Andrés JerezDepartment of Hematology, Hospital Universitari Vall D'hebron (HUVH), experimental Hematology, Vall D'hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO), Department of Medicine, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundActivating mutations in NOTCH1 are frequent in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) and, in the absence of alterations in RAS or PTEN, are associated with favorable prognosis. Besides classical heterodimerization and PEST domain mutations, juxtamembrane internal tandem duplications (JME-ITDs) represent a third class of activating variants. Their intermediate size and sequence composition can challenge short-read next-generation sequencing and variant calling algorithms, leading to underdetection in routine diagnostics.

methodsAn index case of newly diagnosed T-ALL harboring a NOTCH1 juxtamembrane insertion that was discordantly detected by variant callers during routine targeted NGS (Hematology OncoKitDx v2) prompted further analysis. The variant was evaluated using VarDict and VarScan2, followed by manual inspection with IGV and orthogonal confirmation by Sanger sequencing. To further assess variability in the detection of JME-ITDs, six additional BAM files from patients with previously confirmed variants were reanalyzed using VarDict, VarScan2, Mutect2, and Pindel.

resultsIn the index case, VarDict detected a 51-bp NOTCH1 JME-ITD (c.5168-2_5216dup) that was missed by VarScan2 and confirmed by Sanger sequencing. Reanalysis of the seven cases showed that Mutect2 and VarDict detected all JME-ITDs (100%), VarScan2 identified only three (42.8%), and Pindel detected six mutations (85.7%). These results reflect differences in algorithmic strategies where haplotype-based callers incorporate soft-clipped and split reads, whereas pileup-based discard them.

conclusionDetection of NOTCH1 JME-ITDs depends strongly on variant-calling strategy. Combining haplotype-based callers with split-read structural variant tools may reduce false negatives and improve detection of clinically relevant insertions in diagnostic NGS pipelines.

Indexed as

MutationPrecursor T-Cell Lymphoblastic Leukemia-LymphomaReceptor, Notch1FemaleHigh-Throughput Nucleotide SequencingHumansMaleNOTCH1 protein, humanReceptor, Notch1juxtamembrane mutationNOTCH1T‐lymphoblastic leukemiavariant detection

Identifiers

PMID42257444
PMCPMC13399816

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.