Leukaemia chemotherapy research study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Biology and therapeutic targeting of chemotherapy-resistant leukaemic stem and progenitor cells
IRAS ID
188994
Contact name
Tim Somervaille
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a cancer of the blood, which affects 2000-3000 people each year in the UK. Whilst current therapy can often achieve remission, most patients will suffer relapse within one or two years of completing therapy and succumb to the disease. The cells responsible for relapse survive in small numbers but are able to multiply many times, replacing the AML cells that were killed by chemotherapy. Our plan is to investigate the properties of these chemotherapy-resistant cells by comparing bone marrow samples from before and immediately after chemotherapy. We aim to discover how they are able to survive treatment and ultimately find new drugs that can target them and stop patients from relapsing. Chemotherapy works by killing cells that are dividing and we will start by establishing whether the cells that survive treatment are dividing or not. We will then look at all of the genes in these cells to see which are turned on, as this will give us further clues as to how they are evading the treatment. Finally we will expose these cells to 1200 drugs and 10,000 chemical compounds looking for any substance that is effective at killing the resistant leukaemic cells but not healthy blood cells. Promising drugs can then be developed further with the aim of saving more patients from these devastating conditions.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/NW/0839
Date of REC Opinion
27 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion