In most patients with systemic mastocytosis (SM), including aggressive SM (ASM) and mast cell (MC) leukemia (MCL), neoplastic cells express the oncogenic KIT mutation D816V, which confers resistance to imatinib.
In attempting to establish a murine model of human KIT(D816V) (hKIT(D816V))-mediated leukemia, we uncovered an unexpected relationship between cellular transformation and intracellular trafficking.