leukemia

A genetic defect in sex cells may predispose to childhood leukemia
12/18/2012 - 11:15

Researchers at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center and the University of Montreal have found a possible heredity mechanism that predisposes children to acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common type of blood cancer in children. According to their findings published in Genome Research, the presence of a genetic defect in the egg or sperm from which children having ALL arise may be a prerequisite for the disease to develop. A significant number of children with ALL are thought to inherit a rare PRDM9 gene variant responsible for the abnormal sex cells–a gene variant that puts their own children at risk of having ALL-predisposed offspring.

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Leukemia Patients Remain in Remission More Than Two Years After Receiving Genetically Engineered T Cell Therapy
12/10/2012 - 07:47

Nine of twelve leukemia patients who received infusions of their own T cells after the cells had been genetically engineered to attack the patients’ tumors responded to the therapy, which was pioneered by scientists in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Penn Medicine researchers will present the latest results of the trial today at the American Society of Hematology’s Annual Meeting and Exposition.

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Peripheral Blood Stem Cell Transplants from Unrelated Donors Associated with Higher Rates of Chronic Graft-Versus-Host-Disease
10/19/2012 - 09:04

Claudio Anasetti, M.D., chair of the Department of Blood & Marrow Transplant at Moffitt Cancer Center, and colleagues from 47 research sites in the Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network conducted a two-year clinical trial comparing two-year survival probabilities for patients transplanted with peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow stem cells from unrelated donors. The goal was to determine whether graft source, peripheral blood stem cells or bone marrow, affects outcomes in unrelated donor transplants for patients with leukemia or other hematologic malignancies.

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Deadly complication of stem cell transplants reduced in mice
09/27/2012 - 13:42

Studying leukemia in mice, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have reduced a life-threatening complication of stem cell transplants, the only curative treatment when leukemia returns.

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Possible new Sorafenib therapy for the treatment of a common blood cancer
09/05/2012 - 10:54

Research from Karolinska Institutet shows that sorafenib, a drug used for advanced cancer of the kidneys and liver, could also be effective against multiple myeloma. The disease is one of the more common forms of blood cancer and is generally incurable.

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New insights into Taspase1 function: Exploiting "molecular glues" to target disease relevant proteolytic enzymes
07/10/2012 - 07:07

Scientists at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany identified a novel strategy to target the oncologically relevant protein-cleaving enzyme Taspase1. Taspase1 levels are not only elevated in cancer cells of patients with head and neck tumors and other solid malignancies but the enzyme is also critical for the development of leukemias. Central to this concept is the approach to inhibit the enzyme’s activity by 'gluing together' individual Taspase1 molecules.

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