The Fight Cancer Foundation’s funding of the Bone Marrow Research Laboratories has contributed towards groundbreaking research in the fight against cancer. A team of researchers, headed by Dr David Curtis with Lead Researcher Dr Mathew McCormak of the Bone Marrow Research Laboratories, in collaboration with the University of Melbourne’s Department of Medicine at The Royal Melbourne Hospital have discovered the cells that cause a common type of childhood leukaemia - T cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (T-ALL).
Approximately 50 new cases of T-ALL are diagnosed every year in Australia mostly in childen and adolescents. Adults can contract T-ALL. Three out of four children diagnosed with T-All go into remission after extensive treatment lasting up to 3 years.
The team found that with irradiation treatment in animal models, over 99 per cent of cells in the thymus were killed, but these stem cell-like cells persisted and rapidly recovered. This suggests that these cells may survive therapy and be responsible for relapsed disease following treatment. Dr McCormack, a leading international expert on childhood leukaemia, and a former BMDI Fellow, said: “The cellular origins of this leukaemia are not well understood. Our discovery that these cells are similar to normal stem cells explains why they are capable of surviving for long periods. It also explains why they are remarkably resistant to treatment.”
Dr Curtis, Head of the Leukaemia Research Program at The Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Deputy Director of the BMRL said: “The identification of these cells provides an important target for the development and testing of new treatments for patients with T cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia.”
The team will now focus on novel treatments capable of killing these cells, which may lead to clinical trials within the next five years. Funding from the BMDI (Fight Cancer Foundation)was integral to this research.
This pioneering work was published in the premier international journal, Science and was the subject of great interest in the media, both locally and internationally.