Breast cancer drug also highly potent against leukaemia
Researchers found a novel therapeutic window that attacks the dependency of a cancer cell on its growth regulator.
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London: A drug developed for breast cancer treatment that blocks the activity of CDK6 enzyme in the body has been found to be highly effective against acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) with FLT3 mutations, a study said.
In her study, published recently in the journal Blood, Uras found that another tumour-promoting factor, the enzyme CDK6, directly regulates and initiates the production of FLT3 and thus causes the disease.
The active agent developed for breast cancer treatment blocks the activity of CDK6 and subsequently down regulates FLT3.
"We found a novel therapeutic window that attacks the dependency of a cancer cell on its growth regulator," said Uras.
The compound from breast cancer therapy deprives the cancer cells of "nutrients". AML cancer cells carrying the mutation died immediately in the experiments.
The advantage of having this agent at hand is the fact that it has already been approved for the therapy of breast cancer in 2015.
It significantly enhanced the lifespan of patients with breast cancer. Hence, clinical studies can be rapidly initiated without passing a long series of tests in advance.
AML is the most frequent form of leukaemia, also known as blood cancer. Patients with AML have poor prognosis and high mortality rate despite considerable advances in chemotherapy and haematopoietic stem cell transplantations.
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