Genomics and early treatment response data can guide treatment of pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) by flagging low-risk subtypes that respond well to lower intensity therapy, according to researchers from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Patients with ETV6::RUNX1 and high-hyperdiploid B-ALL, they found, could skip the traditional recommended regime…

Research led by the University of Copenhagen sheds light on why people with Down syndrome are at higher risk for the blood cancer leukemia. The study, published in Nature, shows that babies with Down’s have disruptions in gene expression that results in abnormal blood cell differentiation that can lead to…

Researchers have found that adding ruxolitinib to standard tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment significantly increases the number of patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) who achieved deep molecular responses, potentially allowing them to discontinue treatment. “Treatment free remission has become a common therapeutic goal for patients with CP-CML, said…

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…

French and Swiss researchers have uncovered the genetic and energetic characteristics of leukemic stem cells that are responsible for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and suggest that blocking a specific iron utilization process of these cells provides an avenue for new therapeutic strategies to fight this disease. New approaches are desperately…

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a cancer of the bone marrow and the blood that progresses rapidly without treatment. Now, scientists at Purdue University’s College of Science and collaborators have developed a patent-pending compound called HSN748 to treat drug-resistant AML. Their findings are published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation in…

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…

Researchers from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and other institutions report that a new BTK-targeting drug compound has shown promise to overcome treatment resistance of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The results of the Phase I research, published today in the journal Science, show that the compound called NX-2127…

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 have been awarded new funding to develop therapies against a form of pediatric leukemia which generally has a poor prognosis. A team led by John H. Bushweller, PhD, of the University of Virginia School of Medicine, is leading the effort to create new therapeutic options for acute myeloid leukemia…

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…

New findings from researchers at Linköping University in Sweden have shown that contrary to previous belief, stems cells remain in the bone marrow in acute lymphocytic leukemia. The disease, however, has been found to cause a hidden defect in the stem cells, that makes them lose their ability to form…

Syndax’s revumenib showed promise in advanced acute leukemias with KMT2A rearrangements or mutant NPM1, according to findings from the Phase I AUGMENT-101 trial published this week in Nature. Formerly SNDX-5613, revumenib is an oral small-molecule inhibitor of the menin (MEN)-KMT2A interaction. Another study this week, also in Nature, explained the how MEN1 mutations play…

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…