GROUNDBREAKING RESEARCH Childhood leukemia stem cells develop in pregnancy
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Professor Mel Greaves
Chairman of the Section of Haemato-Oncology
Unravelling the causes of childhood leukaemia
Meet Professor GreavesMore research stories:
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common childhood cancer. Researchers at the ICR have identified stem cells that cause ALL and have provided further evidence that this cancer starts during pregnancy. Stem cells are precursor or founder cells that can develop into any type of blood cell.
Mel Greaves, ICR Professor of Cell Biology and Chairman of the Section of Haemato-oncology, and his ICR team worked with Professor Tariq Enver at The University of Oxford and clinical colleagues at Great Ormond Street Hospital. They compared blood cells of three-year-old identical twins; Olivia, who is under treatment for ALL and her healthy sister Isabella. Both girls shared the same abnormal ‘pre-leukemic’ stem cells because of their common blood supply from a single placenta when in the womb.
The pre-cancerous stem cells arise in the developing baby during pregnancy after the abnormal breakage and re-fusion of two genes into a single, hybrid gene called TEL-AML1. The pre-cancerous cells can stay dormant, or acquire further mutations that trigger clinical leukemia. The research provides hope that the presence or disappearance of the pre-leukemic cells can be used to monitor the success of ALL treatment. Targeted treatment against the pre-cancerous and cancerous stem cells can now be considered, which would minimize harmful side-effects.
Lead researcher Professor Greaves said; "We suspect that these cells can escape conventional chemotherapy and cause relapse during or after treatment. These are the cells that dictate disease course and provide the bull’s eye to target with new therapies."
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