The Genetic and Molecular Drivers of Multiple Myeloma: Current Insights, Clinical Implications, and the Path Forward

Meghana Ram,1 Molly R Fraser,2 Junia Vieira dos Santos,1 Rafail Tasakis,3 Ariana Islam,1 Jannah Usama Abo-Donia,1 Samir Parekh,3,4 Alessandro Lagana1,3,5 1Department of Oncological Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; 2Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, MA, USA; 3Tisch Cancer Institute, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; 4Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USA; 5Department of Genetics and Genomic Sciences, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY, USACorrespondence: Alessandro Lagana, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, 1470 Madison Avenue, New York, NY, 10029, USA, Email [email protected]: Multiple myeloma (MM) is a hematological malignancy characterized by the clonal proliferation of malignant plasma cells within the bone marrow. The disease’s complexity is underpinned by a variety of genetic and molecular abnormalities that drive its progression.Methods: This review was conducted through a state-of-The-art literature search, primarily utilizing PubMed to gather peer-reviewed articles. We focused on the most comprehensive and cited studies to ensure a thorough understanding of the genetic and molecular landscapes of MM.Results: We detail primary and secondary alterations such as translocations, hyperdiploidy, single nucleotide variants (SNVs), copy number alterations (CNAs), gene fusions, epigenetic modifications, non-coding RNAs, germline predisposing variants, and the influence of the tumor microenvironment (TME). Our analysis highlights the heterogeneity of MM and the challenges it poses in treatment and prognosis, emphasizing the distinction between driver mutations, which actively contribute to oncogenesis, and passenger mutations, which arise due to genomic instability and do not contribute to disease progression.Conclusion & Future Perspectives: We report key controversies and challenges in defining the genetic drivers of MM, and examine their implications for future therapeutic strategies. We discuss the importance of systems biology approaches in understanding the dependencies and interactions among these alterations, particularly highlighting the impact of double and triple-hit scenarios on disease outcomes. By advancing our understanding of the molecular drivers and their interactions, this review sets the stage for novel therapeutic targets and strategies, ultimately aiming to improve clinical outcomes in MM patients.Keywords: cancer, mutations, translocations, fusions, ncRNA, epigenetics, myeloma