Leukemia News and Research

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Leukemia (Leukaemia) is a cancer of the blood cells. It is the most common type of blood cancer and affects 10 times as many adults as children. Most people diagnosed with leukemia are over 50 years old. No one knows why some people develop leukemia and others do not. However, scientists have identified some risk factors for the disease. Most people who have known risk factors do not get leukemia, while many who do get the disease have none of these risk factors. During the early stages of leukemia, there may be no symptoms. Many of the symptoms of leukemia don't become apparent until a large number of normal blood cells are crowded out by leukemia cells.

New biomarker may predict aggressiveness of chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center have evidence of a potential new biomarker to predict the aggressiveness of an often difficult-to-treat form of leukemia.

20 Apr 2009

Treatment with biphosphonates may prevent radiation-induced leukemia

Treatment with biphosphonates could prevent radiation-induced leukemia, according to data presented at the American Association for Cancer Research 100th Annual Meeting 2009.

20 Apr 2009

Addition of dasatinib to standard chemo cocktail may enhance effect in certain ovarian cancers

The addition of a chemotherapeutic drug for leukemia to a standard regimen of two other chemotherapy drugs appears to enhance the response of certain ovarian cancers to treatment, according to a pre-clinical study led by researchers in the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

20 Apr 2009

Vion Pharmaceuticals' NDA for Onrigin accepted for FDA review

Vion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced that the New Drug Application (NDA) for its lead oncology therapeutic Onrigin (laromustine) Injection has been accepted for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

16 Apr 2009

Healthy baby born 22 years after father's sperm was frozen

Twenty two years after his sperm was frozen because he had leukaemia, a man has fathered a healthy baby girl.

15 Apr 2009

Scientists harness nanoparticles to track cancer-cell changes

The more dots there are, the more accurate a picture you get when you connect them.

14 Apr 2009

Therapeutic effect of imatinib improved with addition of chloroquine

The therapeutic effects of the blockbuster leukemia drug imatinib may be enhanced when given along with a drug that inhibits a cell process called autophagy, researchers from the Kimmel Cancer Center at Jefferson reported in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

13 Apr 2009

Scientists uncover mimicry at the molecular level that protects genome integrity

The new study, which was published on April 12, 2009, in an advanced online edition of the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, draws new parallels between the Rad60 DNA repair factor and SUMO, a small ubiquitin-like modifier, which are both essential for maintaining genome stability during replication.

13 Apr 2009

Enhancing the effects of imatinib mesylate used to treat chronic myeloid leukemia

Individuals with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) are first treated with a drug known as imatinib mesylate.

13 Apr 2009

New alternative to biopsy detects subtle changes in cancer cells

A drop of blood or a chunk of tissue smaller than the period at the end of this sentence may one day be all that is necessary to diagnose cancers and assess their response to treatment, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

12 Apr 2009

Discovery of gene that protects against leukemia

Researchers have identified a gene that controls the rapid production and differentiation of the stem cells that produce all blood cell types -- a discovery that could eventually open the door to more streamlined treatments for leukemia and other blood cancers, in which blood cells proliferate out of control.

9 Apr 2009

Researcher tackles deadly brain tumors

Natalie Ciaccio, a fourth-year graduate student researcher in the Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry at the University of Kansas, is investigating what might be an ideal target for anti-cancer drug therapy, and she is focusing her work on brain tumors specifically.

6 Apr 2009

Monoclonal antibody cancer therapy

The strategy of using monoclonal antibodies for cancer treatment was first described in the late 1970s with the promise that they could be developed into therapies that were highly specific to cancer cells, killing them with few or no side effects.

6 Apr 2009

Molecule called miR-29b could be a potent treatment for acute myeloid leukemia

A new study by Ohio State University cancer researchers shows that boosting the level of a molecule called miR-29b in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) cells can reverse gene changes that trap the cells in an immature, fast growing state of development.

5 Apr 2009

FDA provides positive review of InNexus Biotechnology development plan for lead preclinical candidate

InNexus Biotechnology Inc. has announced the United States Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has completed its comprehensive review of the development plans for InNexus' lead preclinical candidate, DXL625 (CD20) for the prospective treatment of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (NHL) and/or Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL).

2 Apr 2009

New test for a deadly fungal infection in patients with damaged immune systems

A quicker, cheaper and more accurate test for deadly Aspergillus fumigatus fungal infections in patients with damaged or suppressed immune systems was described today, (Thursday 2 April) at the Society for General Microbiology meeting in Harrogate, by Dr Christopher Thornton from the University of Exeter, UK.

1 Apr 2009

Researchers develop mouse models of leukemia that predict response to chemotherapy

Being able to accurately predict how a given cancer will respond to chemotherapy would spare patients with non-responsive tumors the burden of undergoing toxic and ultimately unhelpful treatment.

1 Apr 2009

Data suggesting that omacetaxine can eradicate leukemic stem cells may offer a breakthrough for CML

Data showing the ability of omacetaxine to kill leukemic stem cells in mouse models with drug-resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) are the subject of an advance online publication in the journal Leukemia, ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Limited (ASX:CXS and NASDAQ:CXSP) announced today.

29 Mar 2009

Researchers decipher blood stem cell attachment, communication

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health have deciphered a key sequence of events governing whether the stem cells that produce red and white blood cells remain anchored to the bone marrow, or migrate into the circulatory system.

25 Mar 2009

More cancer patients cured according to new data on cancer survival in Europe

New data and analyses from a long-running study of cancer survival in Europe have shown that the number of people actually cured of cancer - rather than just surviving for at least five years after diagnosis - is rising steadily.

23 Mar 2009