Oregon Health & Science University Cancer Institute researcher Jeff Tyner, Ph.D., has created a way to identify proteins that are candidates for targeted therapy in acute myeloid leukemia using an assay that yields results in just four days.
This research will be presented at the American Society of Hematology annual meeting in Atlanta, on Monday, Dec. 10, at 8:15 a.m.
This functional assay, called RAPID, because it rapidly delivers the information, has the capability of telling researchers which actual proteins from the tyrosine kinase family are contributing to an individual patient's cancer.
“If you know what protein is driving the cancer, you have the ability to target that protein and stop it. With this knowledge it may be possible to match targeted drugs with the appropriate patient. It may also be possible to identify mechanisms as to why certain leukemias respond well to therapy and why others may not. The real novelty of our work is that we have performed this assay directly on patient samples. It gets us one step closer to the clinic and personalized medicine,” said Tyner, a fellow in hematology/ medical oncology, OHSU School of Medicine.