Blood cancer treatment could be transformed by discovery

New blood cancer treatment edging closer.

A discovery that could potentially unlock an entirely new approach to targeting blood cancers like acute myeloid leukaemia could bring hope to patients who are no longer responding to existing treatments. It is the result of years of tireless work by a team of international researchers led by QIMR Berghofer scientists, Dr Claudia Bruedigam and Professor Steven Lane.

Blood cancers are often diagnosed when they’ve spread through the body so treatments like surgery and radiation are far less effective. Traditional chemotherapies sometimes stop working and there are some patients who don’t respond at all. New types of treatments that target the blood cancer throughout the body are urgently needed.

The scientists were investigating why a new class of drug, imetelstat, was effective at killing leukaemia cancer cells in the laboratory. They found the drug induces a type of cell death that has only recently been discovered, known as ferroptosis.

The scientists also showed for the first time the detailed biological process that triggers this cell death in leukaemia samples treated with the drug.

Their findings, published in the prestigious journal Nature Cancer, could be highly significant for advancing the treatment of other types of cancer too.

[sianellis]

Amazing work - thank you. I received a stem cell transplant to treat AML - originally diagnosed with MDS so this is especially exciting. I am currently well but knowing you are working on these makes me even more positive about the future. I'm 59 years old.

[varunas]

Thank you so much
Please find some ways to eradicate AML most small children are suffering from this hell disease