The impact of adipokines on Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia outcomes
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The impact of adipokines on Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) outcomes
IRAS ID
208263
Contact name
Sarah Withers
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Kidscan
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Obesity is recognised by the World Health Organisation as a global epidemic. Many links have been made between obesity and poorer outcomes for patients diagnosed with a range of diseases, including cancer. In particular, obese children diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) have a higher chance of relapse, the reasons for which are not yet fully understood. We propose to investigate this phenomenon at the level of the cell, in order to strip back the complexity and understand how the cell’s basic response to chemotherapy is influenced by the increased proportion of fat tissue present in obese patients. We will identify the key molecules secreted by fat tissue in patient samples, and monitor how their levels change before and after the initial phase of chemotherapy. We will then use this information to simulate the conditions found in ALL patients using a cell culture-based system, allowing us to directly measure if these secretions are able to influence the sensitivity of ALL cells to treatment. In this way, we can identify which secretions from fat tissue are able to interfere with chemotherapy, and so design new strategies to overcome this to improve the prognosis of obese childhood ALL patients in the future.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2
REC reference
16/NS/0134
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jan 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion