A NEW treatment for leukaemia has been developed by scientists in Scotland which they hope will free thousands more patients of the disease.
The breakthrough is the result of six years of pioneering research using advanced technology and tackling cancer cells in new ways.
At the moment patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia have little chance of a cure unless they undergo a bone marrow transplant – which itself can be life threatening.
Read more: Rare blood cancer treatment approved for NHS use
But now scientists at the University of Glasgow have made a second significant breakthrough using precision medicine to kill more than 90 per cent of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) stem cells.
Like leukaemia, CML is a blood cancer where a genetic mutation in the stem cells causes far too many white blood cells to be produced. Around 700 people in the UK are diagnosed with the condition each year.
The cancer progresses slowly and the vast majority of patients under the age of 65 are still alive five years after diagnosis. But it can be fatal.
Currently, CML patients are treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors, otherwise known as TKIs.
Treatment of patients with TKIs alone rarely cures the disease but hold its advancement at bay and as a result, many patients need to remain on them for the rest of their lives.
Read more: Rare blood cancer treatment approved for NHS use
But the drugs are expensive and can cause serious side effects in some patients.
TKIs do not kill the CML stem cells which cause the disease and the Glasgow researchers have been searching for ways to kill the CML stem cells for many years.
Now the research teams, led by Dr David Vetrie and Professor Tessa Holyoake, believe they have found a new drug that could lead to a cure for CML by killing the CML stem cells.
The drug works by inhibiting the activity of a protein called EZH2 which had previously been shown to be important for the survival of other types of cancer cells, but had never before been studied in CML.
Dr David Vetrie, based at the Wolfson Wohl Cancer Research Centre in Glasgow, said: “This discovery, based on seven years of experimental work, is a great example of precision medicine – finding drugs that target only the CML stem cells we want to kill, while leaving normal cells unharmed.”
“Having a new drug that we can give to patients alongside a TKI is an ideal scenario in the clinic – TKIs kill most of the CML cells, and we believe that the EZH2 inhibitor will kill the remaining CML stem cells.”
Read more: Rare blood cancer treatment approved for NHS use
Now preparations have begun to give patients, who are not responding well to existing therapies, the drugs for the first time. It is anticipated the first sufferers, who face a lifetime on medication with unpleasant and serious side effects, could commence the new treatment regime within 18 months.
Cancer Research UK and patient charity Bloodwise, which both helped fund the project, have expressed excitement about the findings.
Diana Jupp, director of patient experience at Bloodwise, said: “In recent years, this once usually fatal leukaemia has been transformed into a manageable condition for most patients.
“These promising findings could lead to drugs that provide a permanent cure by targeting the cancer stem cells that drive this disease, which is a hugely exciting prospect.”
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