Stem-cell researchers solve mystery relapse AML

5 July 2017

Leukemia researchers have traced the origins of relapse in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) to rare therapy-resistant leukemia stem cells that are already present at diagnosis and before chemotherapy begins.

René Marke, theme Cancer development and immune defense, was part of the project during his graduation research for the master's program Molecular Mechanisms of Disease (MMD). 

They have also identified two distinct stem-cell like populations from which relapse can arise in different patients in this aggressive cancer that they previously showed starts in blood stem cells in the bone marrow. These findings, recently published in Nature,  provide significant insights into cell types fated to relapse and can help accelerate the quest for new, upfront therapies.
AML is a blood cancer that affects white blood cells known as myeloid cells. The cancer cells accumulate in the bone marrow, where they interfere with normal blood cell production.