Up to 30% of patients newly diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have an FLT3 gene mutation, which is associated with a high risk of relapse and a very poor prognosis.
Tag: Leukemia
Clues to cancer drug’s deadly side effects could make it safer
For some leukemia patients, their only treatment option carries a risk of heart failure
Awards totaling $2.6 Million Support Exploration of Therapeutic Strategy for Adult and Pediatric T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
Daniel Herranz Benito, PhD, PharmD, resident researcher at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, the state’s leading cancer program and only NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center together with RWJBarnabas Health, and associate professor of pharmacology and pediatrics at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, has received a total of $2.6M to support his research on acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), an aggressive type of leukemia that affects both children and adults.
RNA sequencing analysis may hold the key to more accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment of pediatric B-acute lymphoblastic leukemia
Pilot study by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles and City of Hope proposes a promising global, clinically applicable genomic assay for the diagnosis and treatment of this heterogeneous leukemia, reports The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.
First in human trial of new drug raises hopes for patients with relapsed blood cancer
A new targeted drug, studied by researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute (OSUCCC – James), may offer a new treatment option for patients with blood cancers, including chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Non-Hodgkin lymphoma whose disease has stopped responding to standard treatments.
Soy expansion in Brazil linked to increase in childhood leukemia deaths
Over the past decades, Brazil has become the world’s leading soybean producer, as well as the leading consumer of pesticides. Despite concerns about potential public health consequences, little is known about the effects of pesticide exposure in the general population.
What are blood cancers?
Our myeloid leukemia expert, Anna Eiring, PhD, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso, Assistant Professor, Center of Emphasis in Cancer, Department of Molecular, and Translational Medicine can speak to: What are blood cancers? What is acute myeloid leukemia?…
Study finds new potential therapy option for patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia
Researchers continue to refine and improve targeted drug therapies that have changed the most common form of adult leukemia – from an incurable to a chronic condition. New data published in the New England Journal of Medicine offers another treatment option for patients who have stopped responding to the first and second generation drugs.
Mount Sinai Launches Institute for Regenerative Medicine
Institute, including three new centers, will lead research to foster novel discoveries and explore new treatments for a range of diseases from leukemia to Alzheimer’s disease.
Extreme poverty a key driver for relapse in kids with ALL
Children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who live in extreme poverty and were undergoing maintenance therapy faced an almost two-fold greater risk of relapse compared with kids who weren’t as poor, according to a study published in today’s issue of Blood.
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.
Chula Makes Progress in “CAR T-Cell Therapy” Innovation: New Hope for Thai Lymphoma Cancer Patients
Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, and Nagoya University, Japan, in their collaboration to develop an immunotherapy method for curing cancer, reported on the progress of CAR T-cell immunotherapy innovation for treating cancer in leukemia and B-cell lymphoma patients, which can increase survival rates and reduce cancer recurrence.
Combination therapy overcomes BET inhibitor resistance
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists developed a combination therapy for a leukemia subtype harboring rearrangements in the KMT2A gene. The approach overcomes the cancer’s drug resistance, without adding toxicity. The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.
Vitamin A may reduce pancreatitis risk during ALL treatment
Consuming a diet rich in vitamin A or its analogs may help prevent children and young adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) reduce their risk of developing painful pancreas inflammation during chemotherapy treatment.
Targeting menin induces responses in acute leukemias with KMT2A rearrangements or NPM1 mutations
Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center showed that inhibiting menin with revumenib, previously known as SNDX-5613, yielded encouraging responses for advanced acute leukemias with KMT2A rearrangements or mutant NPM1. Findings from the Phase I AUGMENT-101 trial were published today in Nature.
Targeted therapy momelotinib provides significant symptom and anemia improvements in patients with myelofibrosis
Patients with myelofibrosis had clinically significant improvement in disease-related symptoms, including anemia and spleen enlargement, when treated with the targeted therapy momelotinib, according to results from the international Phase III MOMENTUM trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
MD Anderson Research Highlights for January 11, 2023
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts.
Pharmacotyping of childhood leukemia provides a blueprint for ‘true precision medicine’
Scientists from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital performed the largest study yet examining drug sensitivity in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia across genomic subtypes and its association with treatment response.
Novel drug combinations and targeted therapies show promise for patients with leukemia
Researchers from The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center are presenting compelling findings from three clinical trials at the 2022 American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting. These oral presentations highlight encouraging results to advance the use of targeted therapies and novel combinations in multiple types of leukemia, including high-risk and newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in older and younger patients and Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
MD Anderson Research Highlights for September 28, 2022
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts. Current advances include an investigation into the efficacy of dexamethasone for dyspnea relief, a combination therapy for hairy cell leukemia, an analysis of RAS mutations and their prognostic value in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a possible new combination therapy for basal-like breast cancer, and swallowing exercises to improve the quality of life for patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiotherapy.
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.
Blood cancer scientists developing powerful new tools to improve diagnosis and treatment for patients
Australian researchers will use new technology to improve the diagnosis and treatment of blood cancers, which affect 1.24 million people globally, including 720,000 who die from leukemia, lymphoma or myeloma each year.
KU Cancer Center researchers discover that people with blood-related cancers have a higher chance of COVID breakthrough infections
Individuals with blood-related cancers are more likely to experience a COVID-19 infection even after being vaccinated, a University of Kansas Cancer Center study has found.
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.
MD Anderson Research Highlights for June 29, 2022
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recent basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts. Current advances include a lower-intensity therapy for acute myeloid leukemia, a new target for treating chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, real-world synthetic controls for clinical trials in rare cancers, a potential biomarker to predict endocrine therapy response in breast cancer, integrated CRISPR screens to identify novel tumor suppressors, and a deeper knowledge of the immune tumor microenvironment in melanoma-derived brain metastases.
Roswell Park Expert to Present on Effectiveness of New Combination for Acute Myeloid Leukemia
On Tuesday, June 7, Eunice Wang, MD, Chief of Leukemia at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center, will present the long-term results of a phase 2 clinical trial combining crenolanib, a second-generation FLT3 inhibitor, with standard intensive chemotherapy for treatment of adults with newly diagnosed FLT3-mutant acute myeloid leukemia (AML), in a talk at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting 2022.
MD Anderson Research Highlights for May 4, 2022
Featured studies include clinical advances with a new combination therapy targeting angiogenesis in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and a promising immunotherapy combination for kidney cancer, plus laboratory studies that focus on targeting ferroptosis in specific lung cancers, developing chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies for blastic plasmacytoid dendritic cell neoplasms, and characterizing racial and ethnic disparities in breast cancer early detection.
Retrospective study finds that cancer drug also lowers blood glucose
Dasatinib, a drug that often is used to treat certain types of leukemia, may have antidiabetic effects comparable to medications used to treat diabetes, and with more research may become a novel therapy for diabetic patients, according to new research published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
MD Anderson to pay tribute to legendary Emil J Freireich, M.D., in virtual celebration on Sept. 23
MD Anderson to honor the life of trailblazing oncologist Emil J Freireich, M.D., in a virtual tribute event on Sept. 23
Blood Cancer Cures and Care: Addressing Leukemia and Lymphoma
Kevin David, MD the director of the lymphoma program and a hematologist/oncologist at Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey shares information about leukemias and lymphomas for blood cancer awareness month.
Hopkins Med News Update
Hopkins Med News Update
New Research Identifies Genomic Markers of Aggressive Childhood Leukemias
New research published today in JAMA Oncology reports how two separate DNA changes appear to predict aggressive childhood leukemias when they occur in combination. This study illuminates genetic understanding of acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children with the worst outcomes.
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre researchers discover key stem cell dormancy mechanism which could help unlock future cancer treatments
Princess Margaret Cancer Centre researchers have made new findings which provide a broader understanding of how dormant hematopoietic stem cells are activated and could pave the way towards therapeutic treatments for a number of cancers.
Eliminating RNA-binding protein improves survival in aggressive leukemia
Removing a protein that is often overexpressed in a rare and aggressive subtype of leukemia can help to slow the cancer’s development and significantly increase the likelihood of survival, according to a study in mice led by scientists at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
International collaboration helps refine treatment for childhood leukemia
Results from a large phase 3 noninferiority clinical trial definitively showed that vincristine and dexamethasone pulses can be eliminated in patients with low-risk disease. The findings were published today in The Lancet Oncology.
Chemotherapy can induce mutations that lead to pediatric leukemia relapse
A collaboration led by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Shanghai Children’s Medical Center and others revealed how thiopurines produce mutations that lead to multi-drug resistant leukemia and relapse.
New discoveries reveal how acute myeloid leukemia walks a fine line between growth and cell death
Researchers revealed new insights into how acute myeloid leukemia (AML) develops and progresses, according to a study published in Molecular Cell on July 20, 2021. They describe a mechanism by which AML cells regulate a cancer-related protein, mutant IDH2, to increase the buildup of blood cancer cells—a distinguishing characteristic of the disease.
MD Anderson Research Highlights for June 30, 2021
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights provides a glimpse into recently published studies in basic, translational and clinical cancer research from MD Anderson experts. Current advances include expanded use of a targeted therapy for a new group of patients with leukemia, molecular studies yielding novel cancer therapeutic targets, insights into radiation therapy resistance and a community intervention to reduce cervical cancer rates.
Researchers develop first inhibitors against key epigenetic complex involved in cancer
Activity of the polycomb repressive complex 1 is essential for the development and maintenance of leukemic cells; disrupting it presents a new potential therapeutic approach.
Researchers Develop First-in-Class Inhibitors Against Key Leukemia Protein
Researchers have developed first-in-class small-molecule inhibitors against a key leukemia protein, ASH1L.
Antiviral T cells safe and effective for treating debilitating complication common after stem cell transplants
A Phase II trial led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center found that BK virus (BKV)-specific T cells from healthy donors were safe and effective as an off-the-shelf therapy for BKV-associated hemorrhagic cystitis (BKV-HC), a painful complication common after allogeneic stem cell transplants for patients with leukemia or lymphoma. The study was published today in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Less is More for the Next Generation of CAR T Cells
Penn Medicine researchers discovered that less is more when it comes to the length of what is known as the single-chain variable fragment in CAR T cells.
‘Information Theory’ Recruited to Help Scientists Find Cancer Genes
Using a widely known field of mathematics designed mainly to study how digital and other forms of information are measured, stored and shared, scientists at Johns Hopkins Medicine and Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center say they have uncovered a likely key genetic culprit in the development of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).
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.
Low-calorie diet and mild exercise improve survival for young people with leukemia
A study led by researchers at UCLA and CHLA has shown that a combination of modest dietary changes and exercise can dramatically improve survival outcomes for those with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most common childhood cancer.
Dr. Mohamad Cherry of Atlantic Health System Presents Studies at Top International Blood Cancer Meeting
Dr. Cherry focused on results from a Juno Therapeutics phase 2 study of liso-cel, an investigational CAR T therapy being tested against aggressive relapsed/refractory B cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Early results indicate a good safety profile, with few adverse events reported. Dr. Cherry also presented on the final results of a phase 1 study of targeted therapy gilteritinib in newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Gilteritinib targets the most common mutation that causes AML, the FLT3 gene. Gilteritinib is sold under the brand name Xospata® by Astellas Pharma.
Researchers take early step toward leukemia drug therapy
The research team has discovered that for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) patients, there is a dopamine receptor pathway that becomes abnormally activated in the cancer stem cells. This inspired the clinical investigation of a dopamine receptor-inhibiting drug thioridazine as a new therapy for patients, and their focus on adult AML has revealed encouraging results.
New classification of leukemia subtypes reveals potential of personalized treatment using existing drugs
Using advanced RNA sequencing, scientists have identified two unique subtypes of a prominent mutation present in many patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) – called NPM1 – that could help predict survival and improve treatment response for patients whose leukemic cells bear the mutation.
Gene mutations linked to worse outcomes from leukemia in Hispanic and Latino children
A combination of genetic mutations may explain the higher incidence of and poorer outcomes from pediatric leukemia in Hispanic and Latino children, according to Penn State College of Medicine researchers.
Researchers Discover Mechanism to Overcome Drug-Resistance in B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia
In a new study led by Yale Cancer Center, researchers have discovered a novel metabolic gatekeeper mechanism for leukemia. This mechanism depends on a molecule called PON2, which could lead to a new treatment for the disease. The findings were published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.