About 40 percent of children and up to 70 percent of adults in remission from Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) will have a relapse. In recent years, doctors have come to believe that this is due to leukemia stem cells, constantly replicating cancer cells that produce immature blood cells characteristic of leukemia and are resistant to traditional cancer treatments. Now, researchers at Children’s Hospital Boston have discovered a possible way to kill these cells and prevent the release of a relapse.The study, published online March 26 in the journal Science, shows that leukemic stem cells can not thrive without a particular cellular pathway, known as the Wnt / beta-catenin, suggesting that targeting this pathway may inhibit the growth and development of AML.

“The greatest potential of this study is the suppression of relapse of leukemia with a drug that inhibits beta-catenin,” says Scott Armstrong, MD, PhD, Division of Children pediatric hematology / oncology and lead author of the study.

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Canadian researchers have discovered a previously hidden channel to attack leukemia and other cancer cells, according to a new study published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The results of the University of Montreal, Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital and Laval University may change doctors treat cancer patients.

“We found a door, which is present in all human beings, which enables anti-cancer agents such as bleomycin to enter the body so they can reach and attack the leukemia cells,” says lead author Dindial Ramotar , a professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Montreal and a research affiliate at the Maisonneuve-Rosemont.

Dr. Ramotar has begun to test his theory ten years ago with the help of yeast, which is remarkably similar to human cells. “Our discovery has increased in this model system for human cells and will soon come to bed due to the therapy of translation, he said.” We are about to test patients. ”

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The ability of cancer cells resistant to treatment with targeted therapies or conventional chemotherapy in some cases, the result of a transient state of reversible drug “tolerance.” In an article published in the April 2 issue of Cell, researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center announce the presence of small populations of drug-tolerant cells of various types of tumors and identify aspects of the underlying mechanism.

“Despite resistance to anticancer drugs may result from preexisting rare genetic mutations that occur in response to treatment, the accumulation of evidence has done in other non-genetic mechanisms of potentially irreversible,” said Jeffrey Settleman, PhD , of the MGH Cancer Center, who led the study. “In cell lines derived from different types of cancer are subpopulations of cells that display an ability to transition to tolerate exposure to toxic drugs, which has been associated with structural changes in the DNA of cells and suggests a therapeutic strategy that could prevent developing resistance. ”

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