Newcastle Scientists Make Breakthrough In Treatment For Blood Cancer

Main Category: Lymphoma / Leukemia
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology;  Blood / Hematology
Article Date: 19 Jun 2008 - 6:00 PDT

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Newcastle University researchers, funded by leading blood cancer charity Leukaemia Research, have made significant progress in the development of improved treatments for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, the commonest leukaemia in adults in the UK.

Dr Elaine Willmore and colleagues 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: "Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia have an excess of white blood cells in their blood, and some patients become very ill and are resistant to drug treatment. We need new and more effective treatments to overcome resistance in patients who have a poor outlook."

She continues: "Drugs that are used to treat this type of leukaemia work by damaging DNA and this leads to the death of these cells. But the leukaemia cells can mend the DNA so that they can survive. One enzyme that repairs drug-induced DNA damage is called DNA-PK. "

Dr Willmore has helped to develop a new drug that can target this enzyme. She says: "Our results show that DNA-PK is present at high levels in chronic lymphocytic leukaemia cells from patients with a poor prognosis. Chemists at Newcastle University working together with KuDOS pharmaceuticals have designed a new drug called NU7441 that inhibits DNA-PK and stops it from mending broken DNA. When NU7441 is combined with drugs used for chronic lymphocytic leukaemia treatment it makes more tumour cells die and 're-sensitises' patients to their chemotherapy."

The results with the new drug have been extremely promising. Dr Willmore explains: . Our exciting results show that in the laboratory, NU7441 'sensitises' the leukaemia cells to routinely used anti-cancer drugs, killing up to 10 times more tumour cells- even in cells taken from patients who were very drug-resistant."

Dr David Grant, Scientific Director of Leukaemia Research, says: "These results are incredibly exciting - drugs like NU7441 will help combat chemotherapy-resistance in those patients who really need more effective treatment for a form of leukaemia which is diagnosed in 3,500 patients in the UK every year."

Dr Willmore's new findings are published in the highly respected journal, Clinical Cancer Research. Leukaemia Research currently has over £3 million pounds invested in 14 research projects into blood cancers in Newcastle, including Dr Willmore's.

Notes

1. The article is published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research on 15 June 2008, Vol. 14, No 12. The author of the report, Dr Elaine Willmore is of the Northern Institute for Cancer Research, Newcastle University.

2. Over the next five years, Leukaemia Research urgently needs to raise over £100 million to commit to new research. From basic laboratory research to clinical trials with patients, Leukaemia Research is committed to saving lives by funding high quality, carefully selected research throughout the UK.

3. Leukaemia Research is the only national charity devoted exclusively to improving treatments, finding cures and learning how to prevent leukaemia, Hodgkin's lymphoma and other lymphomas, myeloma and the related blood disorders, diagnosed in 24,500 people in the UK every year. Further information, including patient information booklets, is available from http://www.lrf.org.uk or call 020 7405 0101

Leukaemia Research