JAK2 V617F 10 Years Later: Dr. Dameshek’s Prophecy Fulfilled

For more than a century, clinicians have recognized myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) as disorders that are characterized by expansion of different myeloid lineages, with important clinical sequelae. However, the seminal insight into these diseases came when Dr. William Dameshek wrote in an editorial in Blood that MPNs share specific clinical features including thrombosis, bleeding, and an increased risk of progression to leukemia.1 This critical insight led to the classification of the different MPNs as a set of clinically related myeloid malignancies. However, his prescience did not stop there; he hypothesized that MPNs were caused by an “undiscovered stimulus” and implored the field to investigate the biologic basis of the different MPNs. Although it took more than 50 years, 2005 marked the year that the field began realizing his vision.