Fig. 3.

A new working hypothesis on the molecular bases of hematological malignancies: Combination of mutations-induced cellular phenotypes determines the disease (cMIP-DD). In addition to the classical class I and II mutations, mutations have been found in a variety of genes involved in epigenetics, splicing, signal transduction and cohesin complex. Each gene mutation leads to disregulated gene expression. The disregulated gene expression induces cellular phenotypes including proliferation, survival, block of differentiation, and immortalization. The combination of the phenotypes determines the disease. Modified from Kitamura et al. (6).