Hematology - Oct 11, 2017 Edition

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	October 11, 2017
	Hematology
	The latest hematology news from News Medical

	Researchers develop novel blood analyzer to improve anemia detection About one quarter of the world's population suffers from anemia, a disease caused by a concentration deficiency of hemoglobin in red blood cells. To reduce the burden of anemia, health officials need a better picture of the disease's global impact, an understanding made viable by a portable and affordable way to analyze blood.

	Researchers identify new cancer-causing pathway behind most aggressive type of leukemia A team led by Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) investigators has identified a new cancer-causing pathway behind most cases of an aggressive type of leukemia, findings that could lead to new targeted treatment approaches.

			BU professor receives $792,000 grant to study about aggressiveness of T-ALL Hui Feng, MD, PhD, assistant professor of pharmacology and medicine at Boston University School of Medicine, is the recipient of a four-year, $792,000 grant from the American Cancer Society to study why T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) is so aggressive and resistant to treatment.

			Chronic Hepatitis C Infection Hepatitis C is a viral infection that affects millions of people around the world. The infection is damaging to the liver in its chronic state, and it is caused by hepatitis C virus (HCV) – a single-stranded RNA virus that is commonly transmitted via injection drug use, blood transfusion, hemodialysis, needle stick injuries and (less commonly) via sexual exposure to infected persons.

			Study on cell stress response may hold promise for treating inflammation-related disorders Stress – defined broadly – can have a profoundly deleterious effect on the human body. Even individual cells have their own way of dealing with environmental strains such as ultraviolet radiation from the sun or germs.

	New research uncovers how blood cancer 'steals' parts of bone marrow cells to thrive New research published today uncovers how the blood cancer 'steals' parts of surrounding healthy bone marrow cells to thrive, in work that could help form new approaches to cancer treatment in the future.

	New microcapsules represent promising vectors for application of genome-editing tools Researchers from Tomsk Polytechnic University jointly with their colleagues from St. Petersburg, Hamburg and London have conducted a study in the course of which it was found out that polymer and hybrid silica-coated microcapsules are more efficient in genome-editing when applying CRISPR-Cas9 system.

	Markey's cancer researcher wins NIH's New Innovator Award University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center Researcher Jessica Blackburn has earned a prestigious National Institutes of Health's New Innovator Award, a grant totaling $1.5 million over five years to fund pediatric cancer research.

	FDA approves Verzenio for advanced metastatic breast cancer The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a new drug Verzenio (abemaciclib) for the treatment of advanced or metastatic hormone receptor (HR)-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2)-negative breast cancer.

	New treatment approach makes cancer cells commit suicide while sparing healthy cells Scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine have discovered the first compound that directly makes cancer cells commit suicide while sparing healthy cells.

	Newly discovered compound causes cancer cell death, whilst sparing healthy cells Researchers have discovered a compound that can trigger cancer cells to self-destruct, without causing any damage to healthy cells.

	FDA approved drug found to have anti-cancer activity against previously unknown targets Developing new drugs to treat cancer can be a painstaking process taking over a decade from start to Food and Drug Administration approval. Scientists are trying to develop innovative strategies to identify and test new drugs quicker and more efficiently.

	New gene therapy to treat cancer in children, young adults offers hopes and challenges The first gene therapy for cancer, approved by the Food Drug Administration in August, will transform the treatment of a particular kind of cancer in children and young adults. It's transformative because it uses a patient's own immune cells to attack the cancer cells.

	Alterations in circulating tumor DNA associated with response to checkpoint inhibitors The number of alterations detected in the DNA collected from blood samples (liquid biopsies) of cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors was associated with response to the treatment.

	Tattoo ink from 15 years ago mimics lymph node cancer: Case study A 30 year old Australian woman presented to the doctors with numerous small lumps under her arms for around two weeks. When one of the nodes were put under the microscope, the doctors found pigments from tattoo ink that she’d got 15 years back.

	New antifungal drug developed to help in treatment of invasive fungal infections University of Liverpool researchers, working with F2G Limited (Eccles, Manchester), have developed a new antifungal drug to help in the treatment of life threatening invasive fungal infections such as invasive aspergillosis.

	Study sheds new light on underlying genetic causes of congenital heart disease Approximately one in every 100 babies is born with congenital heart disease (CHD), and CHD remains the leading cause of mortality from birth defects.

	Five new ways individualized medicine has moved from research lab into clinical care Advancements in individualized medicine are offering health care providers new tools to quickly and accurately diagnose, treat, predict and, eventually, prevent disease. Keith Stewart, M.B., Ch.B., Carlson and Nelson Endowed Director, Mayo Clinic Center for Individualized Medicine, today outlined five new ways individualized medicine has moved from the research lab into clinical care. Dr.

	Researchers discover new class of fusion genes that affect development of cancer Cancer researchers at Lund University in Sweden have discovered a new class of fusion genes with properties that affect and may drive the development of cancer.

	Good-guy bacteria may help individuals respond well to cancer immunotherapy Individuals with certain types of bacteria in their gut may be more likely to respond well to cancer immunotherapy, researchers at the Harold C. Simmons Comprehensive Cancer Center found in a study of patients with metastatic melanoma.

	FDA grants approval for new test to detect Zika virus in blood donations The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today approved the cobas Zika test, a qualitative nucleic acid test for the detection of Zika virus RNA in individual plasma specimens obtained from volunteer donors of whole blood and blood components, and from living organ donors.

	Gene therapy effectively stabilizes progression of cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy, trial reveals In a recent clinical trial, a gene therapy to treat cerebral adrenoleukodystrophy (CALD) -- a neurodegenerative disease that typically claims young boys' lives within 10 years of diagnosis -- effectively stabilized the disease's progression in 88 percent of patients, researchers from the Dana-Farber/Boston Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and Massachusetts General Hospital report today.