|  |  |  | | | | New treatment in trial for AML successfully recruits first patient | | | | |
| |  Dr Mark Lowdell
Release Date: 27 August 2008
Joanne Scott, 53, who has acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), was recently given only eight months to live after several courses of chemotherapy failed and clinicians were unable to find a suitable match for a bone marrow transplant.
However, thanks to innovative research from Leukaemia Research scientists there is new hope for leukaemia patients like Joanne, who do not respond well to conventional treatment.
Dr Mark Lowdell and his team at University College London have been developing a new treatment for nearly 15 years with support from Leukaemia Research. Joanne is now receiving this treatment as part of a clinical trial run by Dr Panos Kottaridis and Dr Mark Lowdell at the Royal Free Hospital in London.
The treatment uses artificially activated anti-tumour cells called Natural Killer cells (NK), found in the immune system. Dr Lowdell and his team first noticed that in some patients with AML the NK cells were able to generate an immune response against their tumours cells. This response prevented relapse after therapy.
With more research, he discovered that NK cells are activated by two separate signalling events sent from the tumour cells; the first prepares the cells for action and the second triggers them to attack. Most AML cells avoid being killed because they lack the first “priming” signal, without which the NK cells are not stimulated to destroy the cancer cells.
After a long search, Dr Lowdell has found a leukaemia cell line that carries this priming signal but and lacks the trigger signal. By using signals from these leukaemia cells he has been able to stimulate the NK cells to kill resistant AML cells.
The team have now transformed these Tumour Activated Natural Killer Cells (taNK) into a new treatment for AML and have started a Leukaemia Research funded clinical trial to test its effectiveness.
Dr Lowdell comments, “This is a very exciting new treatment that we hope will prove effective, not only in the treatment of AML, but eventually some other blood cancers.”
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