From chronic to aggressive, how blood cancer in some can progress as a disease: Study

Study has shown that blocking a key molecule, called DUSP6, in the transition pathway prevents disease progression.

Researchers have identified an important transition point in the shift from chronic to aggressive blood cancer by conducting experiments in mice, providing a new intervention point for hampering the progress of the disease, according to a study.

The researchers at Washington University School of Medicine, US, have shown that blocking a key molecule, called DUSP6, in the transition pathway prevents this dangerous disease progression both, in mice with models of the disease and in mice with tumours sampled from human patients. The research appears in the journal Nature Cancer.

A type of chronic leukaemia, or cancer of the body's blood-forming tissues, can simmer for many years. Some patients may need treatment to manage this type of blood cancer - called myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) - while others may go through long periods of watchful waiting.

However, for a small percentage of patients, the slower paced disease can transform into an aggressive cancer, called secondary acute myeloid leukaemia, that has few effective treatment options. Little has been known about how this transformation takes place.

"Secondary acute myeloid leukaemia has a grim prognosis," said senior author Stephen T. Oh, MD, PhD, an associate professor of medicine and co-director of the Division of Hematology at the School of Medicine.

"Almost every patient who develops acute leukaemia after a history of myeloproliferative neoplasms will die from the disease. Therefore, a major focus of our research is to better understand this conversion from chronic to aggressive disease and to develop better therapies and, hopefully, prevention strategies for these patients," said Oh.

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