One lipid to predict them all

In this issue of Blood, O'Brien et al 1 demonstrates that distinct gene mutations in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) result in unique plasma metabolite and lipid signatures.A total of 231 diagnostic AML plasma samples isolated prior intensive chemotherapy treatments were investigated using unbiased metabolic and lipidomic analysis.Although metabolites were associated with the mutational landscape of AML cells, lipids were highly associated with refractory status.Among all lipids, sphingomyelin (d44:1) [SM(d44:1)] was sufficient to predict overall survival.