New Treatment May Help Eradicate Chronic Myeloid Leukemia
Every year, around 60,000 people are diagnosed with leukemia, a cancer affecting blood-forming tissues. Although it is often considered a childhood cancer, adults are actually diagnosed with leukemia ten times more often than children. Yet despite its prevalence, there are limited treatments and no permanent cures.
One of the most common types of leukemia is chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). CML grows slower than other forms of the disease, but it both worsens over time and is often harder to treat. CML is a cancer in which white blood cells within bone marrow grow out of control, crowding out healthy cells. Bone marrow contains stem cells used to produce red blood cells that give the body oxygen, white blood cells that help the body fight infections, and platelets that prevent blood clots, so disruption of bone marrow tissue has disastrous effects on the human body. Untreated, CML cells can eventually enter the bloodstream, where they will then be spread around the body, causing further damage.
The current standard treatment for CML is with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that target a protein that CML cells produce to allow rapid and unchecked growth. However, this treatment does not get rid of the cancer but just forces it into remission. Consequently, patients are dependent on the drugs for the rest of their lives because discontinuing them almost always causes the recurrence of cancer growth. Moreover, some CML cells are resistant to this treatment, so the cancer can continue to grow despite use of TKIs.
One of the most common types of leukemia is chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). CML grows slower than other forms of the disease, but it both worsens over time and is often harder to treat. CML is a cancer in which white blood cells within bone marrow grow out of control, crowding out healthy cells. Bone marrow contains stem cells used to produce red blood cells that give the body oxygen, white blood cells that help the body fight infections, and platelets that prevent blood clots, so disruption of bone marrow tissue has disastrous effects on the human body. Untreated, CML cells can eventually enter the bloodstream, where they will then be spread around the body, causing further damage.
The current standard treatment for CML is with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) that target a protein that CML cells produce to allow rapid and unchecked growth. However, this treatment does not get rid of the cancer but just forces it into remission. Consequently, patients are dependent on the drugs for the rest of their lives because discontinuing them almost always causes the recurrence of cancer growth. Moreover, some CML cells are resistant to this treatment, so the cancer can continue to grow despite use of TKIs.
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Understanding these risks, researchers in UCLA’s Chute Laboratory are making significant strides towards curing CML. In an October study, the Chute Laboratory announced the identification of the protein that CML cells need to reproduce: pleiotrophin (PTN). They went on to find an antibody that prevents PTN from binding to CML cells and tested this new treatment on mice infected with CML. In this experiment, the antibody not only effectively stopped the spread of the cancer cells, but was also found to cause CML cell death. Cancer was reduced by over 50% among the mice tested. Moreover, the antibody worked without inhibiting the growth of healthy, noncancerous cells. This suggests a possible alternate to cancer treatments like chemotherapy, which often accidentally kills healthy cells in the body. Using PTN antibodies is a more targeted method that ensures healthy cells will not be killed and therefore maintains the patients’ overall well-being during treatment.
PTN antibodies combined with TKIs have the potential to effectively eliminate cancer cells in CML patients. The lab’s next priority will be to integrate this new treatment into ongoing clinical trials in order to see the long-term effects on CML patients. The researchers expect this to significantly reduce the patients’ cancer and improve their quality of life. Moreover, the discovery of pleiotrophin and its antibody suggest a possible treatment for other forms of leukemia. There is significant evidence of PTN in acute myeloid leukemia, which develops much faster than CML and currently has a 5-year survival rate of only 20% for those over 20 years old. If successful, this will lend hope to more effectively treating all kinds of cancers.
PTN antibodies combined with TKIs have the potential to effectively eliminate cancer cells in CML patients. The lab’s next priority will be to integrate this new treatment into ongoing clinical trials in order to see the long-term effects on CML patients. The researchers expect this to significantly reduce the patients’ cancer and improve their quality of life. Moreover, the discovery of pleiotrophin and its antibody suggest a possible treatment for other forms of leukemia. There is significant evidence of PTN in acute myeloid leukemia, which develops much faster than CML and currently has a 5-year survival rate of only 20% for those over 20 years old. If successful, this will lend hope to more effectively treating all kinds of cancers.
Featured Image Source: Pixabay
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