Novel Leukemia Treatment Outperforms Standard Chemotherapies

Highlights

• Leukemia occurs due to the abnormal cell growth in the bone marrow.
• New compound CX-5461 could provide treatment for an aggressive type of leukemia.
• The novel treatment is capable of outperforming standard chemotherapies.

A new treatment for an aggressive type of leukemia that outperforms standard chemotherapies has been on work by a research team at the Australian National University (ANU). Around 1000 people are diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in Australia every year. There is a high rate of mortality for leukemia depending on the patient’s age and only about 30% could survive long-term.

Dr Nadine Hein from The John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU said that they have successfully treated highly aggressive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in mice using the new treatment.

Dr. Hein said, "Not only have we been able to reduce the number of cancer cells, we have been able to reduce the number of cancer stem cells that tend to develop or be resistant to chemotherapy and are thought to be responsible for disease relapse in patients."

New Compound
The research team used a compound known as CX-5461 to target the protein-making process within the cancer cells.

He also said that we are working towards a treatment that will improve the current chemotherapy and improve the patient’s prognosis.

Dr. James D’Rozario, Canberra Hematologist, ANU Senior Lecturer, said that the standard approach to treating leukemia has not changed over the past 30 years.

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"Novel agents such as CX-5461 with more sophisticated mechanisms of action are desperately required to improve outcomes in patients with this group of illnesses," Dr D'Rozario said.

Due to the promising preclinical results, a Phase 1 clinical trial for the patients with blood cancer has been completed in Australia. The study results are published later this year.

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Professor Hannan said, "Another Phase 1/ Phase 2 clinical trial is underway in Canada for the treatment of patients with solid tumors."

Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Acute myeloid leukemia is a type of cancer in which the bone marrow makes abnormal blood cells.

According to the American Cancer Society, around 21,380 new cases of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are estimated to be in 2017.

The chances of recovery and treatment options for leukemia may depend on:

• The age of the patient
• The subtype of AML
• When the patient has received chemotherapy to treat a different cancer
• When cancer has spread to other parts

References

1. Nadine Hein, Donald P. Cameron, Katherine M. Hannan, Nhu-Y N. Nguyen, Chun Yew Fong, Jirawas Sornkom, Meaghan Wall, Megan Pavy, Carleen Cullinane, Jeannine Diesch, Jennifer R. Devlin, Amee J. George, Elaine Sanij, Jaclyn Quin, Gretchen Poortinga, Inge Verbrugge, Adele Baker, Denis Drygin, Simon J. Harrison, James D. Rozario, Jason A. Powell, Stuart M. Pitson, Johannes Zuber, Ricky W. Johnstone, Mark A. Dawson, Mark A. Guthridge, Andrew Wei, Grant A. McArthur, Richard B. Pearson, Ross D. Hannan. Inhibition of Pol I transcription treats murine and human AML by targeting the leukemia-initiating cell population. Blood, 2017; DOI: 10.1182/blood-2016-05-718171
2. Adult Acute Myeloid Leukemia Treatment - ( https://www.cancer.gov/types/leukemia/patient/adult-aml-treatment-pdq)
3. What Are the Key Statistics About Acute Myeloid Leukemia? - (https://www.cancer.org/cancer/acute-myeloid-leukemia/about/key-statistics.html)

Source-Medindia