Multi-million dollar grants aim to advance hairy cell leukemia research

The Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation and Blood Cancer United^®, formerly The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, today announced six new research grants as part of their ongoing strategic partnership to better understand what drives hairy cell leukemia and find better therapies on the road to cures for this rare form of blood cancer.

For patients with classic hairy cell leukemia, we've achieved years – often decades – of remission. Patients with variant disease, and those who relapse, deserve treatments that work just as well. These grants are how we close that gap – and they exist because patients and families chose to fund this work." 

Anna Lambertson, executive director, Hairy Cell Leukemia Foundation

The latest grants are part of the HCL2030 program, which continues and expands the organizations' six-year partnership. The grants will invest nearly $7 million over the next five years in research at worldclass institutions in the U.S. and Europe.

Advances in understanding the underlying biology of hairy cell leukemia led to the current understanding that it has two distinct types: classic and variant. 

Classic hairy cell leukemia is much more common, accounting for up to 90% of cases. With current treatments, most patients will remain in remission for five to 15 years or more. 

Variant hairy cell leukemia, as well as classic hairy cell leukemia that has relapsed, carry a much worse prognosis. These areas are a focus of the latest round of grants.

Research awards support all aspects of diagnosis, prognosis and care

The current set of awards zero in on a range of aspects to help patients from initial diagnosis and throughout their treatment. This year's awardees:

• Christopher Oakes, Ph.D., at The Ohio State University, is finding ways to advance understanding and classification of hairy cell leukemia in individual patients, the first step in ensuring they get the right treatment.
• Gregory Abel, M.D., M.P.H., at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, is examining quality of life, decision-making and outcomes for patients with hairy cell leukemia.
• Gerlinde Wernig, M.D., at Stanford University in California, is focused on finding new methods to improve disease prognosis, including understanding factors leading to relapse and development of variant disease.
• Reshmi Parameswaran, Ph.D., at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, is examining how hairy cell leukemia becomes resistant to treatment and developing new treatment strategies for its variant form.
• Enrico Tiacci, M.D., at the University of Perugia in Italy will be testing a combination all-oral treatment for patients whose hairy cell leukemia has relapsed. This is a continuation of his groundbreaking work, also supported by research funds from this partnership, that established a drug called vemurafenib as an alternative to chemotherapy-based standard of care.
• Francesco Forconi, M.D., Ph.D., at the University of Southhampton in the UK, is testing whether treatment with a combination of two drugs that inhibit different proteins involved in hairy cell leukemia can lead to deep, long-lasting remissions that would allow patients to stop treatment after a fixed period and remain in remission instead of having to take treatment indefinitely. 

"Medical research is not a solo sport. Even though researchers are working at different locations across two continents, we are all very much on the same team, and that is particularly important for rare diseases such as hairy cell leukemia. It takes cooperation, time and money to find the advances that will make a real difference for patients," said Lore Gruenbaum, Ph.D., chief scientific officer at Blood Cancer United.