Chemotherapy for one type of leukaemia could be improved by giving patients a drug currently used to treat an unrelated condition, new research shows.
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is an aggressive cancer that stops healthy blood cell production. Chemotherapy is the standard treatment, but improvements are needed as the five-year survival rate in patients older than 60 is only 5-15 per cent.
Now, by studying how leukaemia cells infiltrate bone marrow, where blood cells are created, researchers led by a team from Imperial College London have made a crucial discovery.
Studying mice and human samples, they found that certain areas in the bone marrow support blood stem cells, and when these are overtaken by leukaemia cells, these stem cells are lost and production of healthy blood is significantly reduced. This can cause anaemia, infection, and bleeding in patients, and affects the success of chemotherapy.
