|  |  |  | | | | Newcastle scientists make advance in treatment for blood cancer | | | | |
| |  Dr Elaine Willmore’s team
Release Date: 3 July 2008
Newcastle University scientists, funded by leading blood cancer charity Leukaemia Research, have taken a big step forward in improving the treatment for the commonest leukaemia in adults in the UK, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.
Dr Elaine Willmore’s team at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research have developed an experimental drug that is up to 10 times more effective at killing leukaemia cells taken from patients who have stopped responding to treatment. Dr Willmore explains the exciting developments: “Some patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia become very ill and the cancer becomes resistant to the chemotherapy - we need new and more effective treatments to overcome this.”
She continues: “Drugs that are used to treat this type of leukaemia work by damaging the DNA of the leukaemia cells in the blood. But the leukaemia cells defend themselves by mending the DNA and this allows the leukaemia cells to survive. One enzyme that repairs DNA after chemotherapy is called DNA-PK. “
Dr Willmore’s team has developed a new treatment that would attack and destroy DNA-PK. She says: “Our research shows that patients with lots of DNA-PK in their blood respond the worst to treatment because it is protecting the cancer from chemotherapy. We have helped to design a new drug that stops DNA-PK from working. In other words, when chemotherapy damages the leukaemia cells in a patient’s blood, the new drug will make sure that they stay damaged.”
Dr Willmore explains: “We tested our new drug on leukaemia cells taken from patients. When the new drug was combined with chemotherapy, up to 10 times more leukaemia cells were killed than just with chemotherapy alone. This also happened in cells taken from patients that had been very drug-resistant.”
Dr David Grant, Scientific Director of Leukaemia Research, says: “These results are incredibly exciting – this new drug will help combat chemotherapy-resistance in those patients who really need more effective treatment for this form of leukaemia which is diagnosed in 3,500 patients in the UK every year.”
Leukaemia Research currently has over £3 million pounds invested in 14 research projects into blood cancers in Newcastle, including Dr Willmore’s.
|
|
|
|
|
