Progress against acute myeloid leukemia
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the Harvard Stem Cell Institute (HSCI) have identified a drug compound that arrests in mice the progression of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a bone marrow cancer that has not seen a new therapy in four decades. The research, led by David Sykes and David Scadden, co-director and director of the MGH Center for Regenerative Medicine, was published today in the journal Cell. AML develops when blood stem cells and blood progenitor cells cannot differentiate into adult white blood cells, and instead get frozen in an immature state. Those immature cells take up space in the bone marrow and crowd out healthy cells, making it more difficult for the dwindling number of healthy blood cells to keep up with the demands of the body. Current therapies are designed to kill the cancer cells using toxic compounds —namely intensive chemotherapy — that ultimately assault the body, wipe out...