Findings on the Mechanisms That Cause Resistance to Treatment May Lead to Better Targeted Therapies for Acute Myelogenous Leukemia
Posted on: Tuesday, 14 November 2006, 15:00 CST
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Nov. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Research to be published in the journal Blood and posted today on the journal's Web site, suggest that defects in the way blood cells process critical messages are what make patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) resistant to therapy. That discovery may suggest new ways to treat patients with AML.
Patients with AML have specific defects in their signaling pathways -- the mechanisms by which blood cells receive messages from other cells telling them how to behave. These defects produce one or more of the aggressive behaviors that define cancers: uncontrolled growth, inappropriate migration and resistance to killing by standard anti-cancer drugs.
Researchers Jonathan Irish, Ph.D., and Garry Nolan, Ph.D., both from Stanford University in Palo Alto, CA, and Bjorn Gjertsen, Ph.D., University of Bergen, Norway, have been studying these cellular defects in AML patients. Dr. Irish is the recipient of a Society Career Development Program fellowship grant, a program that supports promising academic researchers studying leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma.
"This team has made great headway towards understanding why AML patients do not respond well to treatment," said Deborah Banker, vice president, Society Research Communications. "Hopefully their work will lead to more effective treatments for these patients."
The researchers are identifying signaling patterns in leukemia cells that could lead to a better understanding of how they resist existing therapies for AML. The researchers knew that the signaling by the normally cancer- suppressing p53 molecule is frequently disrupted by mutations in many human cancers, but not in AML. Instead, they found that in some AML patients p53 is neutralized by abnormally increased levels of Bcl-2, a known cancer-causing protein, leading to poor responses to therapy.
"Understanding the biology of how cancer cells work can help us develop a signaling profile that can lead to new therapeutic strategies," said Dr. Irish. "Within each leukemia cell we believe there is an ongoing struggle between signaling that drives aggressive malignant behavior and the cell's internal cancer suppression pathways. Although p53 was present in patients' AML cells and could respond to chemotherapy, the p53 activity was closely matched by an increase in the opposing Bcl-2 protein."
Dr. Irish said that the Society's support was fundamental in moving his research forward.
"I am truly grateful to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society for having confidence in the work of our team and providing us with this funding," said Dr. Irish. "I am hopeful that this work will present new opportunities to increase therapeutic options for people with AML."
About The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society(R), headquartered in White Plains, NY, with 66 chapters in the United States and Canada, is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services. The Society's mission: Cure leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma, and improve the quality of life of patients and their families. Since its founding in 1949, the Society has invested more than $424 million in research specifically targeting leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Last year alone, the Society made 2.5 million contacts with patients, caregivers and healthcare professionals.
For more information about blood cancer, visit http://www.lls.org/ or call the Society's Information Resource Center (IRC), a call center staffed by master's level social workers, nurses and health educators who provide information, support and resources to patients and their families and caregivers. IRC information specialists are available at (800) 955-4572, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET.
Contact: Andrea Greif
914-821-8958
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
CONTACT: Andrea Greif, +1-914-821-8958
Web site: http://www.lls.org/
Source: PRNewswire
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