Common genetic variants in 11q13.3 and 9q22.33 are associated with molecular subgroups of multiple myeloma

Recently, Weinhold et al.1 reported the association of a potentially functional single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the CCND1 gene with an increased incidence of t(11;14) in multiple myeloma (MM). MM can be classified by gene expression profiling (GEP) into seven well-defined molecular subgroups, of which four are strongly influenced by specific translocations involving the immunoglobulin heavy chain locus. These translocations are characterized by transcriptional activation of the genes CCND1 [t(11;14)(q13;q32)], CCND3 [t(6;14)(p21;q32)], c-MAF [t(14;16)(q32;q23)], MAFB [t(14;20)(q32;q11)] and FGFR3/MMSET [t(4;14)(q16;q32)].