Leukemia in Biological News

Comprehensive look at rare leukemia finds relatively few genetic changes launch disease

The most comprehensive analysis yet of the genome of childhood acute myeloid leukemia (AML) found only a few mistakes in the genetic blueprint, suggesting the cancer arises from just a handful of missteps, according to new findings from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The research appears i...

Study validates means to measure possible leukemia marker

COLUMBUS, Ohio A study led by cancer researchers at The Ohio State University has validated a method for reliably measuring variations in certain proteins that may make good biomarkers in chronic leukemia patients. The study shows that liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) can measure...

A miR boost enables acute leukemia cells to mature

COLUMBUS, Ohio A new study by Ohio State University cancer researchers shows that boosting the level of a molecule called miR-29b in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells can reverse gene changes that trap the cells in an immature, fast growing state of development. The study discovered how the ...

CSHL team develops mouse models of leukemia that predict response to chemotherapy

Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y. Being able to accurately predict how a given cancer will respond to chemotherapy would spare patients with non-responsive tumors the burden of undergoing toxic and ultimately unhelpful treatment. Just as important, knowing which of a patient's cancer-causing genetic lesi...

Grape-seed extract kills laboratory leukemia cells, proving value of natural compounds

PHILADELPHIA An extract from grape seeds forces laboratory leukemia cells to commit cell suicide, according to researchers from the University of Kentucky. They found that within 24 hours, 76 percent of leukemia cells had died after being exposed to the extract. The investigators, who report t...

St. Jude identifies genomic causes of a certain type of leukemia relapse

Scientists at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have identified distinctive genetic changes in the cancer cells of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) that cause relapse. The finding offers a pathway to designing treatments for ALL relapse in children and, ultimately, in adults. ...

Daisies lead scientists down path to new leukemia drug

A new, easily ingested form of a compound that has already shown it can attack the roots of leukemia in laboratory studies is moving into human clinical trials, according to a new article by University of Rochester investigators in the journal, Blood. The Rochester team has been leading the inv...

U of M begins nation's first clinical trial using T-reg cells from cord blood in leukemia treatment

University of Minnesota researchers have initiated a ground breaking clinical trial to determine the optimal dose and safety of T regulatory cells (T-regs) to decrease the risk of immune reactions common in patients undergoing blood and marrow transplantation. Ultimately, the researchers hope the...

Dual role in breast tissue for a protein involved in leukemia

Washington, DC - A protein known to play a role in growth of some types of leukemia appears to have a mixed function in breast cancer development, say researchers from the Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). The findings, presented at the annual ...

Scientists identify key gene that protects against leukemia

Researchers have identified a gene that controls the rapid production and differentiation of the stem cells that produce all blood cell types -- a discovery that could eventually open the door to more streamlined treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers, in which blood cells proliferate out...

Tracking the molecular pathway to mixed-lineage leukemia

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (Dec. 15, 2008) Infants and adults with the blood cancer mixed-lineage leukemia (MLL) typically have a poor prognosis, and most infants die before their first birthdays. Although there are varying causes of MLL, most cases are caused by a fusion of two genes, the MLL and the AF4 ...

Syracuse University researchers discover new way to attack some forms of leukemia

Each year, some 29,000 adults and 2,000 children are diagnosed with leukemia, a form of cancer that is caused by the abnormal production of white blood cells in the bone marrow. Current treatments rely primarily on killing the cancer cells, which also destroys normal cells. But what if a way could...

Lab study shows methadone breaks resistance in untreatable forms of leukemia

PHILADELPHIA Researchers in Germany have discovered that methadone, an agent used to break addiction to opioid drugs, has surprising killing power against leukemia cells, including treatment resistant forms of the cancer. Their laboratory study, published in the August 1 issue of Cancer Resea...

Tumor-inhibiting protein could be effective in treating leukemia

Angiocidin, a tumor-inhibiting novel protein discovered by Temple University researchers, may also have a role as a new therapeutic application in treating leukemia, according to a study by the researchers. The study, "The Novel Angiogenic Inhibitor, Angiocidin, Induces Differentiation of Mono...

Two suppressor molecules affect 70 genes in leukemia

COLUMBUS, Ohio By restoring two small molecules that are often lost in chronic leukemia, researchers were able to block tumor growth in an animal model. The research, using human chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cells, also showed that loss of the two molecules affects 70 genes, most of whic...

Gene therapy protocol at UCSD activates immune system in patients with leukemia

A research team at the Moores Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) reports that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who were treated with a gene therapy protocol began making antibodies that reacted against their own leukemia cells. The study will be published o...

St. Jude finds factors that accelerate resistance to targeted therapy in lymphoblastic leukemia

Results of a study by investigators at St. Jude Childrens Research Hospital provide strong evidence for why the targeted therapy drug, imatinib, or Gleevec, which has revolutionized the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia, (CML) is often unable to prevent relapse of a particularly aggressive...

Knocking out survival protein could aid leukemia treatment

An effective way to fight leukemia might be to knock out a specific protein that protects cancer cells from dying, a new study shows. The findings suggest that a drug that can block this "survival protein" might on its own be an effective therapy. But such a drug used in combination with s...

Cancer scientists create 'human' leukemia process to map how disease begins, progresses

Cancer researchers led by Dr. John Dick at Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) have developed a method to convert normal human blood cells into "human" leukemia stem cells. The converted cells, when transplanted into special mice that permit the growth of human cells, can replicate the entire disease p...

Loosen up, DNA: Leukemia gene changes genetic packaging

A signaling system involved in many forms of leukemia and lymphoma is more powerful than scientists have thought, exerting control over our genes by affecting whole swaths of chromosomes in global fashion, according to a paper in the September issue of Nature Genetics and appearing online August 6....

Retinol for combating leukemia cells

Some ten years ago the Department of Cell Biology and Histology at the University of the Basque Country initiated research into how cell death was boosted by means of retinoids. It was thought that this potential could be used in the fight against cancer cells. Vitamin A, also known as retinol,...

Genetically Modified Natural Killer Immune Cells Attack, Kill Leukemia Cells

Natural killer (NK) immune system cells can be genetically modified to brandish a powerful "on-switch" that prompts them to aggressively attack and kill leukemic cells. This finding, from researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, suggests a way to improve the outcome of children who rec...

Protein That Promotes Survival Of Stem Cells Might Be Key To Poor Leukemia Prognosis

The complex and life-sustaining series of steps by which hematopoietic stem cells (HSC) give rise to all of the body's red and white blood cells and platelets has now been discovered to depend in large part on a single protein called Mcl-1. This finding, from an investigator at St. Jude Children's ...

Genetically modified natural killer immune cells attack, kill leukemia cells

Natural killer (NK) immune system cells can be genetically modified to brandish a powerful "on-switch" that prompts them to aggressively attack and kill leukemic cells. This finding, from researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, suggests a way to improve the outcome of children who rec...

Recent breakthroughs in common adult leukemia highlighted in New England Journal of Medicine

When the most common adult leukemia in the United States was last reviewed by the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) in 1995, it was seen through the eyes of theories that dated back to the 1960s. As such, the journal recently invited three of the world's foremost experts on chronic lymphocytic...

Researchers discover inherited mutation for leukemia

Researchers have discovered the first inherited gene mutation that increases a person's risk for chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), one of the most common forms of the disease. The study shows that the inherited mutation greatly reduces the gene's protective activity. Furthermore, a second kin...

La Jolla Institute discovers novel tumor suppressor

...ells by the bone marrow and include chronic myeloid leukemia. Lymphoma and leukemia are cancers of the blood. "PLC-beta 3 is an enzyme, but the function we ...man cell testing in some other lymphomas and leukemias -- including myeloid leukemia -- indicating that these diseases also use this mechanism (low expression o...

Genetic factors implicated in survival gap for breast, ovarian or prostate cancer

...economic status, and found no statistically significant difference in survival based on race for a number of cancers including lung, colon, lymphoma, leukemia and multiple myeloma. However, African-American patients with breast, ovarian, or prostate cancers the gender specific tumors were found to face a s...

GUMC discovery highlights new direction for drug discovery

... that work against fusion proteins inhibit a single protein to stop intrinsic enzymatic activity; one example is Gleevec, used for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The Ewing's sarcoma fusion protein, known as EWS-FLI1, lacks enzymatic activity, "and this difference is why our work is significant," Toretsky...

CWRU receives $5 million from Ohio Third Frontier Commission

...d jobs as well as by having access to leading-edge clinical therapies at our region's clinical institutions." The use of stem cells has focused on leukemia and myeloma treatments with recent applications in cardiovascular disease. Current healthcare is limited to the use of drugs or devices to treat disea...

UCLA cancer researchers develop model that may help identify cancer stem cells

..., select cells from a tumor have the ability to initiate a new tumor - the cancer stem cells. In the last decade, scientists have been able to isolate leukemia stem cells as well as brain and breast cancer stem cells. Many scientists believe that most, if not all, cancers will one day be traced back to these ...

University of Kansas graduate student researcher takes aim at deadly brain tumors

...ced by cancer patients. It's a motivating factor in making development of better cancer therapies the focus of her career. "My grandfather died of leukemia when I was in junior high and he was very sick the last year of his life," Ciaccio said. "I think a lot of it was the treatment that was making him si...

Molecular fingerprints point the way to earlier cancer diagnosis and more targeted treatment

...n pathways," Dr. Sreekumar says. His inspiration to follow those pathways is a fellow Ph.D. student who died too young and quickly of an aggressive leukemia and the fact that cancer is a leading cause of death worldwide. ...

Waking up dormant HIV

...eradicate the virus as some HIV always remains dormant in cells. But, a chemical called suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA), recently approved as a leukemia drug, has now been shown to 'turn on' latent HIV, making it an attractive candidate to weed out the hidden virus that HAART misses. Matija Peterli...

U-M researchers discover new genes that fuse in cancer

... rearrangements in chromosomes and fused genes in prostate cancer. Gene fusions had previously been known to play a role in blood cell cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, and in Ewing's sarcoma. In the current study, the researchers showed that newer techniques could identify these gene fusions more qui...

Human genomics in China

...n molecular biology studies of mammalian reproductive system, signal transduction, immunology, microbiology, central nerve system, genetic evolution, leukemia pathogenesis and so on, were all somehow involved in genomics work to certain extent. The rise of other molecular "omics" further strengthened the l...

American Association for Cancer Research hosts Science of Health Care Disparities Meeting

...alth care because of the cost? Are rural patients less likely to be screened for cancer? Genetic polymorphisms that increase prostate cancer and leukemia risk When: February 3-6, 2009 Where: Carefree Resort and Villas Carefree, AZ AACR Press Room: Location: Cholla II Hours: 8:00 ...

Study links molecule to muscle maturation, muscle cancer

... COLUMBUS, Ohio Researchers at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center have discovered that a molecule implicated in leukemia and lung cancer is also important in muscle repair and in a muscle cancer that strikes mainly children. The study shows that immature muscle cells...

Stowers Institute's Linheng Li Lab expands understanding of bone marrow stem cell niche

...ommitment in vivo," said Linheng Li, Ph.D., Investigator and senior author on the paper. "Furthermore, we will be able to use this technology to study leukemia (and other cancer) stem cells to better understand whether they use the same or different niches that normal stem cells use, and even to evaluate drug...

Cancer cell 'bodyguard' turned into killer

...said, is for researchers to determine what types of cancer and what stages of the disease this deadly Bcl-2 converter would combat. Linda Wolff, a leukemia researcher at the National Institutes of Health's Center for Cancer Research in Bethesda, Md., said the researchers' discovery is "rare" in the world ...