Targeted Capture VDJ and Translocation Detection in Myeloma Cell Lines

Multiple myeloma is a disease of malignant plasma cells characterized by oncogenic translocations in immunoglobulin genes and a clonal V(D)J signature, which can both be used to track disease over time. Additional subclonal genomic changes are often acquired at disease progression and with therapeutic selection. A plethora of effective treatment options are now available such that many patients may have deep responses and often undergo multiple therapies in their treatment course. Simultaneous somatic mutation detection is additionally helpful to guide use of novel targeted therapies. Current methods to detect clonal V(D)J rearrangements are PCR based and can be limited by somatic hypermutation. We have developed a sensitive, targeted capture approach (CapIG-seq) to detect V(D)J rearrangements and immunoglobulin translocations in combination with established methods for mutation detection.