Scientists make leukaemia treatment discovery

A study of mice is the first step to relieve some acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) patients from toxic treatments and increase the research into therapeutic treatments.

Scientists at the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center found during the treatment of mice with leukaemia that those with a FLT3-ITD mutation, the most common type and associated with poor prognosis, that certain types of drugs frequently used in treatment protect the cancer cells.

Dr Timothy S. Pardee, an assistant professor of hematology and oncology and lead author of the study, told the journal Experimental Hematology that the FLT3-ITD mutation seems to make cells more sensitive to the impact of cytarabine, while making it almost immune to a combination of cytarabine and doxorubicin.

Scientists found that mice with the FLT3-ITD mutation succumbed to cancer at the same rate as those which were untreated.

"It's almost like the doxorubicin is protecting the cancer cells somewhat from the impact of the cytarabine, which is trying to kill the cell," Dr Pardee said.

He explained that while more research is needed, the study could prevent many leukaemia patients from having to undergo the extremely toxic doxorubicin treatment.