Investigators at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (St. Jude) and the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), have shown that non-coding DNA is responsible for as much 60% of the genetic changes that drive T-lineage acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), an aggressive and high-risk form of the…

In pediatric and young adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) treated with tisagenlecleucel (Kymriah), DNA sequencing-based detection of residual disease identified all patients who would eventually relapse, and was more accurate than flow cytometry. While flow cytometry could detect approximately one cancer cell per 10,000 blood cells, NGS-MRD was…

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital are investigating the inherited genetics of childhood leukemia and how particular gene variations can affect treatment outcomes. The research showed that an inherited variation in the GATA3 gene strongly influences early response to chemotherapy and is linked to relapse in children with acute…

A recent breakthrough by scientists at the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital has shed light on which tumor cells in B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) resist treatment and how this resistance can be overcome. The researchers, led by senior co-corresponding author Jun J. Yang, PhD, vice chair of the Department…

New findings may explain why some children with leukemia have a longer remission than others after having CAR T-cell therapy. Researchers at University College London (UCL), Great Ormond Street Hospital, and the Wellcome Sanger Institute identified a unique signature in chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cells that are long lasting—a key…

Researchers led by a team from the Netherlands have shown that adding the immunotherapy blinatumomab to chemotherapy delays progression and improves survival for infants with an aggressive type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that the treatment, which has already been…

Scientists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have developed a novel combination therapy for a leukemia subtype harboring rearrangements in the KMT2A gene, which is more common in infants. The combination uses BET- and GSK3-inhibitors. The researchers report that based on laboratory work, their “synergistic” combinatorial approach overcomes the cancer’s drug resistance without adding…

A retrospective survival analysis conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital found that children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) who lived along the Texas border with Mexico were more likely to die within five years than those living in other areas of the state. The…

A study by researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital delving into drug response across a swath of genetic subtypes of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), could provide a map for clinicians to more precisely match available treatments with a patient’s specific form of cancer. The results, from what the investigators…

Research led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and the University of Cambridge reveals why some cases of infant B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) remain untreatable, but reveals new targets for future treatments for these children. ALL mostly affects young children and takes different forms depending on the main cell…

To help overcome relapse of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL), researchers from Princess Máxima Center for pediatric oncology in Utrecht, the Netherlands, collaborated with Amsterdam UMC to find new ways to tackle the disease. The researchers demonstrated in mice that blocking a protein chain reaction makes childhood leukemia cells more…

Studies led by researchers at NYU Langone Health, its Department of Pathology, and the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Cancer Center, have found that the amino acid valine, which is a molecular building block in many animal proteins, plays a key role in T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) pathogenesis. The…

Removal of an overexpressed protein known as IGF2BP3 using CRISPR-Cas9 in mice with aggressive leukemia led to improved survival and at least half the mice becoming disease free, show results from a study led by researchers at the UCLA Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center. Although the work is still at an…

University College London (UCL) and Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) researchers and clinicians say they have discovered a small subset of T-cells that may play a key role in whether chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapies will be successful against leukemia in children. The team, which assessed and compared…

Research shows that two genetic mutations could be behind the higher incidence and worse prognosis of B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children from Hispanic or Latino backgrounds. The team behind the study, a collaboration between Pennsylvania State University, the University of Southern California and California-based Loma Linda University, hopes a…