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Precision Medicine Inhibitor and Immunotherapy Approaches for High-Risk Childhood Leukemias
Dr Tasian’s scientific passion is successful development of precision medicine therapies for high-risk childhood leukemia. Her translational laboratory research program focuses upon investigation of kinase inhibitors and chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell immunotherapies in childhood ALL and AML using primary patient specimens and patient-derived xenograft models. Through her laboratory and clinical research, she aspires to improve cure rates and minimize toxicities for children with leukemia.Targeting Leukemia Stem Cells in the Clinical Setting: The Development of A Comprehensive Program
My focus is to develop a program in which novel therapies targeting leukemia stem cells (LSCs) are tested in clinical trials. This is achieved via partnership with laboratory-based colleagues who identify vulnerabilities in LSCs. Once recognized, we find or develop drugs to exploit these weaknesses through clinical trials for acute myeloid leukemia patients. The goal is to bring forward new therapies that result in deep and durable responses, which also have the potential to cure this disease.Synergistic targeting of metabolic and epigenetic vulnerabilities in leukemia stem cells
Our lab is focused on identifying unique features that distinguishes acute myeloid leukemia (AML) stem cells from normal blood-forming stem cells. The cells that make more AML cells than others are called AML stem cells, and these cells need to be eradicated to achieve deep therapeutic responses. We believe targeting metabolism may achieve this goal and found strategies to target AML stem cell metabolism without harming normal stem cells. We hope that our study will lead to improved therapies against AML targeting metabolism to achieve deep remission with little toxicity.Lower Dose Mitoxantrone for Venetoclax Resistant Acute Myeloid Leukemia
Venetoclax-based regimens are the standard of care for many patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and are highly active therapeutic strategies for this challenging disease. However, some patients do not respond, and most patients who do respond will relapse. We have discovered that resistance to venetoclax may be mediated by the movement patterns of calcium throughout a cell. Furthermore, we have found that mitoxantrone, a conventional chemotherapy agent, can interrupt these calcium fluctuations at very low doses.Powerful Partnerships are Helping to Save Lives
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has helped millions impacted by cancer throughout their almost 70-year history. But the fight against blood cancers cannot be won without support.
Detection and Targeting of Enzymatic Base Editing Deregulation in Leukemia Stem Cells
Dr. Jamieson is examining the role of two enzymes (APOBEC3 and ADAR1) known to mutate DNA and RNA, and their role in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and disease relapse, particularly in elderly patients.
Barely Legal, Barely Leukemic: My CML Story
I arrived at college in September, barely legal, but fully ready to live out the Hollywood higher education stereotype. I was fighting a cold but didn’t let that stop me from attending every party I could. The revelry lasted until October, when the “cold” was diagnosed as chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). I went to the university health center on suspicions of mono, and the next thing I knew I was on the oncology floor of a Boston hospital.
Beyond Blankets: Subaru Loves to Care brings comfort and warmth
Blood cancer treatment can be a scary and confusing time. And blood cancer patients want to feel like they’re not alone.
That’s why The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) and Subaru are partnering to bring warmth and comfort to blood cancer patients through warm blankets, patient care kits, and handwritten notes of encouragement.
The Immune System and Blood Cancer: 4 Things You Need to Know
Immunotherapy uses the power of the immune system to treat blood cancer. Today it is a standard treatment that has a profound effect in some blood cancer patients, but it still falls short in others.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has been a champion of this type of cancer treatment for decades, supporting some of the earliest and most game-changing immune-based treatments for blood cancer. The advances have been astonishing, but there is so much further to go.
Venetoclax
Venetoclax is FDA approved
- For the treatment of adult patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL).
- In combination with azacitidine, or decitabine, or low-dose cytarabine for the treatment of newly-diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in adults who are age 75 years or older, or who have comorbidities that preclude use of intensive induction chemotherapy.
Cladribine
Cladribine is FDA approved to treat people who have active hairy cell leukemia. It is also used to treat some other types of leukemia and lymphoma.
Advances in Cancer Research and Treatment in 2020
Progress in new cancer treatments is accelerating so rapidly that the standard of care for many cancer patients is changing right before our very eyes.
Since 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved a remarkable 53 therapies just to treat patients with blood cancers, and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has helped advance 46 of these treatments.
I have no reason to believe the next few years won’t be as productive and groundbreaking as the last few. With that, here are some of my predictions for 2020:
Interrogation of glutathione biology in relapsed acute myeloid leukemia stem cells
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a devastating blood cancer. Most AML patients will initially respond to standard therapy; however, for many patients the disease recurs resulting in patient death. Consequently, there is an urgent need to develop new therapeutic strategies for relapsed AML patients. The objective of our proposal is to understand and target properties specific to relapsed AML cells with the overall goal of improving relapsed AML patient outcomes.Improving the outcomes of young Black adults diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia
Young Black patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have significantly shorter survival compared to White patients. To comprehensively assess genetic, genomic and biologic contributors to the race-associated survival disparity, we propose a complementary approach that addresses major knowledge gaps in our current understanding of AML biology in Black patients, including the overdue characterization of the Black AML genome and subsequent delineation of biologic response to treatment.BRAF inhibition as an alternative to chemotherapy in the treatment strategy of hairy cell leukemia
Hairy cell leukemia (HCL) is very sensitive to chemotherapy, whose toxicity to the bone marrow and the immune system is however concerning. We have established vemurafenib plus rituximab as a very effective chemotherapy-free regimen in relapsed/refractory HCL (NEJM, in press). Here, we will test it in a clinical trial against a chemotherapy-based standard of care represented by cladribine plus rituximab, aiming at lower toxicity and similar efficacy.Development of peptide-drug conjugates for the treatment of Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukaemia (CMML)
We are aiming to bring a new treatment option to patients with chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) by utilising CCL2-drug conjugates that specifically target and eliminate cancerous cells. Our leading conjugate shows potent and selective efficacy in killing CMML cells. The proposed work will help us understand how this drug works, which patients are most likely to benefit and how it can be combined with current treatments to achieve the greatest patient benefit.Epigenetic heterogeneity in age-related clonal hematopoiesis and acute myeloid leukemia
Our focus is to unravel how clonal hematopoiesis (CH) progresses to leukemia. We will investigate how epigenetic heterogeneity affects Tet2-mutant hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) during aging. We plan to simultaneously trace HSC clonal identity and clonal history by genetic barcode and single-cell multi-omics and determine their epigenetic configurations adaptive in the aged, inflammatory bone marrow. The long-term goal is to create innovative therapeutics to mitigate CH and prolong health span.Random Acts of Light Day Serves As an Annual Reminder of Our Goal to Create a World without Blood Cancers
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is out to prove the benefit of everyday kindness, on the third annual National Random Acts of Light Day, set for June 13. In conjunction with LLS’s Light The Night campaign, Random Acts of Light aims to create awareness and educate the public about the critical need to fund research to find cures for blood cancer patients, and ensure they have access to lifesaving treatments.
The Fruits of Our Funding
Advances in cancer research seem to be occurring at dizzying speed these days.