New tech addresses manufacturing bottlenecks in a lifesaving blood cancer treatment

Relapsed B-cell ALL is the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in children and young adults. UniSA research has shown the potential of new microfluidic technology, to improve the CAR T-cell manufacturing process by efficiently removing contaminating cancerous cells and other large white blood cells – potentially leading to greater access and lower costs of treatment.

An anti-inflammatory curbs spread of fungi causing serious blood infections

Study finds that mesalamine, a common anti-inflammatory drug, can fight the fungus Candida albicans in the gut, potentially preventing the risk of invasive candidiasis in patients with blood cancers.

Mount Sinai Researchers Receive $7 Million to Improve Outcomes for High-risk Blood Cancer Patients From the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation

The Mount Sinai Health System has received a $7 million grant from the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation for a three-year project that aims to fast-track novel translational concepts to improve outcomes for people with high risk myeloma, the second most common blood cancer in the United States.

New insights to enhance treatment and diagnosis of blood cancer

A ground-breaking study by researchers from the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore (CSI Singapore) at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has revealed crucial insights into the role of the histone methyltransferase NSD2 and its epigenetic target PKCα in causing t(4;14) translocated multiple myeloma (MM), a high-risk subtype of blood cancer, to be more aggressive and resistant to treatment.

Ketogenic diet and its effects on tumour growth and ‘wasting syndrome’

Professor Ashok Venkitaraman, Director of the Cancer Science Institute of Singapore at the National University of Singapore, together with Assistant Professor Tobias Janowitz, Principal Investigator at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, and an international group of researchers from the USA and UK, have discovered that ketogenic diets delay tumour growth but accelerate cachexia, a wasting syndrome, an unintended side effect that could cause death.

Study: Blood stem cell diversity arises in embryonic development

All humans have a diverse set of blood stem cell types that help govern overall health. As people age, they tend to lose this diversity, increasing their risk for blood cancers, cardiovascular disease and all-causes death. Yale School of Medicine…

Scientists Create Most Powerful, Accurate Tool Yet to Research Deadliest Blood Cancer

Tisch Cancer Center scientists have developed unique models of the deadliest blood cancer, acute myeloid leukemia (AML), creating a transformative resource to study this cancer and eventually its drug response and drug resistance. The models were described in a late-breaking abstract at the annual meeting of the American Association of Cancer Research and simultaneously published in Blood Cancer Discovery, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

Research identifies new target that may prevent blood cancer

An international coalition of biomedical researchers co-led by Alexander Bick, MD, PhD, at Vanderbilt University Medical Center has determined a new way to measure the growth rate of precancerous clones of blood stem cells that one day could help doctors lower their patients’ risk of blood cancer. The technique, called PACER, led to the identification of a gene that, when activated, drives clonal expansion.

National Comprehensive Cancer Network Announces Collaboration with Blood Cancer Experts in Poland

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®)—a not-for-profit alliance of leading United States cancer centers—announces a new collaboration with the Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine in Poland (IHIT), and the Alliance For Innovation—Polish-American Foundation (AFI).

Multiplication on, multiplication off: Targeting an enzymatic switch to develop oncology drugs

Interdisciplinary research highlighted lipid-protein interaction as a new avenue for oncology drug development, demonstrating its functionality by designing small molecule-based inhibitors to target acute myeloid leukemia.

Mount Sinai Researchers Find New, Safer Treatment for Serious Side Effect of Bone Marrow Transplant

Researchers at The Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai have identified a treatment that is effective and safer than the standard of care for a serious, and sometimes fatal, side effect of bone marrow transplant in cancer patients. Results from a phase 2 clinical trial were presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in December.

Experimental Cancer Therapy Shows Success in More Than 70 Percent of Patients in Global Clinical Trials

A new therapy that makes the immune system kill bone marrow cancer cells was successful in as many as 73 percent of patients in two clinical trials, according to researchers from The Tisch Cancer Institute at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

NCCN Annual Congress on Hematologic Malignancies™ Returns to In-Person October 14–15, 2022 in New York City

The 2022 NCCN Annual Congress on Hematologic Malignancies™ (#NCCNhem22) is taking place Friday, October 14–Saturday, October 15, 2022 in New York City. All live sessions will also stream remotely through a virtual event platform.

There’s a Better Way to Detect High-Risk Medications in Older Adults with Cancer According to New Study in JNCCN

Gerontology researchers teamed up with hematologic-oncology investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to look at the association between older patients with blood cancers who were taking multiple medications and their corresponding frailty. They also created a new scale based on a list of Potentially Inappropriate Medications (PIMs) from the NCCN Guidelines® for Older Adult Oncology—called the Geriatric Oncology-Potentially Inappropriate Medications (GO-PIMs) Scale—and found it to be more effective at predicting frailty than conventional methods.

Stanford cancer team halts growth of multiple myeloma and diffuse large B cell lymphoma in mice with custom molecule sBCMA-Fc V3

Researchers at Stanford University have developed “decoy receptor” molecules that inhibit the growth of both multiple myeloma (MM) and diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) in mice. The molecules, described in a study to be published July 26 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine (JEM), were also found to be nontoxic in monkeys, suggesting they could be used to treat humans with either of these deadly diseases, which are two of the most common blood cancers around the world.

Scientists discover genes that affect the risk of developing pre-leukaemia

The discovery of 14 inherited genetic changes which significantly increase the risk of a person developing a symptomless blood disorder associated with the onset of some types of cancer and heart disease is published today in Nature Genetics. The finding, made in one of the largest studies of its kind through genetic data analysis on 421,738 people, could pave the way for potential new approaches for the prevention and early detection of cancers including leukaemia.

New Work Upends Understanding of How Blood Is Formed

The origins of our blood may not be quite what we thought. Using cellular “barcoding” in mice, a groundbreaking study finds that blood cells originate not from one type of mother cell, but two, with potential implications for blood cancers, bone marrow transplant, and immunology. Fernando Camargo, PhD, of the Stem Cell Program at Boston Children’s Hospital led the study, published in Nature on June 15.

Albert Einstein Cancer Center Researcher Receives NCI Outstanding Investigator Award to Study Two Deadly Blood Diseases

Ulrich G. Steidl, M.D., Ph.D., co-director of the Blood Cancer Institute and associate director of basic science at the Albert Einstein Cancer Center (AECC), has received a prestigious Outstanding Investigator Award from the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Response to COVID-19 Vaccines Varies Widely in Blood Cancer Patients

Patients with a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma had a widely variable response to COVID-19 vaccines—in some cases, no detectable response—pointing to the need for antibody testing and precautions for these patients after vaccination, according to a study published in Cancer Cell in June.

Low on Antibodies, Blood Cancer Patients Can Fight off COVID-19 with T Cells

Antibodies aren’t the only immune cells needed to fight off COVID-19 — T cells are equally important and can step up to do the job when antibodies are depleted, suggests a new Penn Medicine study of blood cancer patients with COVID-19 published in Nature Medicine.

Study finds risk of leukemia higher than expected in children with Down syndrome

The risk of childhood leukemia among kids with Down syndrome is higher than predicted, according to a new study led by UC Davis and UC San Francisco researchers. Early diagnosis remains critical.

Promising role for whole genome sequencing in guiding blood cancer treatment

A new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis shows that whole genome sequencing is at least as accurate and often better than conventional genetic tests that help determine the treatment for a patient’s blood cancer. Genome sequencing technology continuously is decreasing in cost and recently reached a level similar to that of conventional testing.

Fred Hutch statement regarding the FDA approval of CD19 immunotherapy, lisocabtagene maraleucel

SEATTLE — Feb. 5, 2021 — Today the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the chimeric antigen receptor immunotherapy, Breyanzi (lisocabtagene maraleucel or liso-cel), for the treatment of adults with relapsed or refractory (R/R) large B-cell lymphoma after at least two prior therapies.The approval was granted to Bristol Myers Squibb, and development of the therapy was supported by physician-scientists at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

Circulating tumor DNA indicates increased risk of relapse after stem cell transplant in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Many patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) can be cured by a transplant using their own blood-forming stem cells, but as many as half eventually relapse. New research led by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute scientists suggests that patients whose blood or stem cell samples harbor tumor DNA are likely to relapse.

Venetoclax added to standard treatments shows promise in high-risk myeloid blood cancers

The novel oral drug venetoclax can be safely added to standard therapies for some high-risk myeloid blood cancers and in early studies the combination shows promise of improved outcomes, say scientists from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Study reveals surprising benefit of clonal hematopoiesis in allogeneic transplants

Clonal hematopoiesis (CH) is a recently identified condition in which mutations associated with blood cancers are detected in the blood of some healthy, usually older, individuals who don’t have cancer. People with CH, while asymptomatic, have an elevated risk of developing blood cancers and other negative health outcomes, including heart attacks and strokes.