Search

Development of new preclinical models of childhood leukaemia

Sébastien Laurence Rishi S. Malinge Cheung Kotecha PhD BPharm (Hons) MBA PhD MB ChB (Hons) MRCPCH FRACP PhD Laboratory Head, Translational Genomics

Novel therapeutics approaches for infants with high-risk infant acute lymphoblastic leukaemia

Rishi S. Laurence Sébastien Kotecha Cheung Malinge MB ChB (Hons) MRCPCH FRACP PhD BPharm (Hons) MBA PhD PhD Co-Head, Leukaemia Translational Research

Preclinical Assessment of Dactinomycin in KMT2A-Rearranged Infant Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Infants with KMT2A-rearranged B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) have high rates of relapse and poor survival compared with children. Few new therapies have been identified over the past twenty years. The aim of this study was to identify existing anti-cancer agents that have the potential to be repurposed for the treatment of infant ALL.

Drug find could represent big win for our little patients

Dr Rishi Kotecha knows too well the devastation of a leukaemia diagnosis in a child, treating children as a consultant at Princess Margaret Hospital.

Therapeutic targeting of the leukaemia microenvironment

In recent decades, the conduct of uniform prospective clinical trials has led to improved remission rates and survival for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. However, high-risk patients continue to have inferior outcomes, where chemoresistance and relapse are common due to the survival mechanisms utilised by leukaemic cells.

Aging of preleukemic thymocytes drives CpG island hypermethylation in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia

Cancer cells display DNA hypermethylation at specific CpG islands in comparison to their normal healthy counterparts, but the mechanism that drives this so-called CpG island methylator phenotype (CIMP) remains poorly understood. Here, we show that CpG island methylation in human T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) mainly occurs at promoters of Polycomb Repressor Complex 2 (PRC2) target genes that are not expressed in normal or malignant T-cells and which display a reciprocal association with H3K27me3 binding.

Gain of chromosome 21 in hematological malignancies: lessons from studying leukemia in children with Down syndrome

Structural and numerical alterations of chromosome 21 are extremely common in hematological malignancies. While the functional impact of chimeric transcripts from fused chromosome 21 genes such as TEL-AML1, AML1-ETO, or FUS-ERG have been extensively studied, the role of gain of chromosome 21 remains largely unknown.

Constitutive Activation of RAS/MAPK Pathway Cooperates with Trisomy 21 and Is Therapeutically Exploitable in Down Syndrome B-cell Leukemia

Children with Down syndrome (constitutive trisomy 21) that develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia (DS-ALL) have a 3-fold increased likelihood of treatment-related mortality coupled with a higher cumulative incidence of relapse, compared with other children with B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL).

Targeting cytokine- and therapy-induced PIM1 activation in preclinical models of T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia and lymphoma

IL7 and glucocorticoids coordinately drive aberrant activation of PIM1 and suggests that T-ALL and T-LBL patients could benefit from PIM inhibition

Outcome of Infants Younger Than 1 Year With Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated With the Interfant-06 Protocol: Results From an International Phase III Randomized Study

Early intensification with postinduction myeloid-type chemotherapy courses did not significantly improve outcome for infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia