Laboratory studies into the pathology of leukaemia
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Laboratory studies into the pathology of leukaemia
IRAS ID
197096
Contact name
David Taussig
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
14 years, 4 months, 1 days
Research summary
Hormones are chemical signals released from glands in the body into the blood stream. These hormones send signals to a wide range of tissues to change the behaviour of the cells in those tissues. Some of the most well-known hormones are testosterone and oestrogen, often referred to as male and female hormones, that determine the development of sexual characteristics (such as development of breasts).
Many sorts of cancers are stimulated by hormones to grow. Researchers at the Royal Marsden Hospital/Institute of Cancer Research have used drugs that block the chemical signals coming from testosterone and oestrogen to treat various types of cancer. These hormone blocking treatments can stop tumours growing, preventing recurrence of tumours and can kill tumour cells producing remissions.
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) remains a challenging illness despite improvements in the treatment of specific subtypes and many patients die from their disease. We know that men with AML have a higher chance of the treatment not working and the reason for this is not clear. Our idea is to test whether AML cells are being stimulated by the male hormone, testosterone, to survive and grow despite the treatments such as chemotherapy. We will see if we can slow the growth of leukaemia cells by blocking testosterone. We will also test whether blocking the effects of testosterone can increase the effects of chemotherapy on leukaemia cells. The testing will be performed in the laboratory using leukaemia cells from patients. This is to see whether there is sufficient evidence for our theory that testosterone protects AML cells from chemotherapy.
Although men produce more testosterone than women, women also produce testosterone. Therefore this approach may be of benefit to both men and women.
If we show that blocking testosterone is effective in enhancing chemotherapy in the laboratory we could then do clinical trials of testosterone blocking drugs in AML. Drugs to block testosterone are already licenced for the treatment of cancer and so there is no need to go through the long process of drug development for these clinical trials. One of the most successful of these drugs was developed here at the Royal Marsden Hospital/Institute of Cancer Research.REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0266
Date of REC Opinion
14 Jun 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion