|  |  |  | | | | Newcastle's £100,000 award raises hope for childhood leukaemia | | | | |
| |  Professor Andrew Hall
Release Date: 17th December 2002
Scientists at the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne have been awarded £100,000 by Leukaemia Research to improve chemotherapy for children with leukaemia.
Professor Andrew Hall, and his team led by Dr Julie Irving at the Leukaemia Research Molecular Pharmacology Programme, will find out why children vary in their response to a commonly used drug called vincristine.
While most children respond well to this cancer-killing agent, others are more resistant to it and require further aggressive treatment increasing their risk of side effects such as muscle weakness, fits and painful limbs.
"Overcoming this problem is a major step in getting more children into long-term remission," explained Professor Hall.
The researchers are particularly interested in two genes _ MDR1 and MRP1 _ which control pumps regulating the levels of drug in the leukaemia cells. They suspect that leukaemic cells are spitting out the drug to prevent them from being killed.
Blood cells from more than 50 children with leukaemia will be analysed for evidence that this is the case.
If true, it may allow doctors to alter a child's treatment by giving a drug that is not regulated in the same way _ thereby improving their chances of survival.
Professor Hall and Dr Irving will also examine how vincristine gets into the blood and attaches to microscopic fibres within leukaemia cells. "We suspect that it is easier for vincristine to bind to certain leukaemia cells than others _ so we will be looking to identify those children who may be better off having different treatments."
Convinced that better drug management is important in children with leukaemia, Professor Hall added: "We are striving for the best treatments to help children survive, by making better use of existing drugs like vincristine."
Dr David Grant, Leukaemia Research Scientific Director, said: "Advances in technology have enabled us to find out more about how these drugs work and how children respond to them. We will use this information effectively to benefit every young patient by offering them more finely tuned and selective treatments."
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