Abstract Accumulating evidence links pediatric cancers to prenatal transformation events, yet the influence of the developmental stage on oncogenesis remains elusive. We investigated how hematopoietic stem cell developmental stages affect leukemic transformation, disease progression, and therapy response using a novel, humanized model of NUP98::NSD1-driven pediatric acute myeloid leukemia that is particularly aggressive with WT1 comutations. Fetal-derived hematopoietic stem cells readily transform into leukemia, and WT1 mutations further enhance stemness and alter lineage hierarchy. In contrast, stem cells from later developmental stages become progressively resistant to transformation. Single-cell analyses revealed that fetal-origin leukemia stem cells exhibit greater quiescence and reliance on oxidative phosphorylation than their postnatal counterparts. These differences drive distinct therapeutic responses despite identical oncogenic mutations. In patients, onco-fetal transcriptional programs correlate with worse outcomes. By targeting key vulnerabilities of fetal-origin leukemia cells, we identified combination therapies that significantly reduce aggressiveness, highlighting the critical role of ontogeny in pediatric cancer treatment. Significance: This study signifies the critical consequences of developmental timing in cancer initiation, revealing that identical driver mutations in fetal- versus postnatal-origin leukemias exhibit fundamentally distinct biology and treatment responses. Recognizing these developmental differences opens avenues for personalized therapeutic strategies, improving outcomes for pediatric patients with aggressive disease subtypes in leukemia.
Wang et al. (2025) studied this question.