In the September 15th issue of Genes & Development, Drs. Richard T. Williams, Willem den Besten, and Charles J. Sherr at Howard Hughes Medical Institute, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis TN, lend new insights into how an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) develops, and how sensitivity to the targeted chemotherapeutic drug, imatinib, can be diminished through interactions between tumor cells and the host microenvironment.

A new study suggests that acute leukemia patients whose cancer cells show a genetic change that usually predicts a swift return of the disease following remission may remain disease-free longer when given aggressive therapy.

A new study shows that the activity of a particular gene can identify people who have a more lethal form of acute myeloid leukemia, singling out those patients who should receive more intense therapy.

Results from two new studies provide key mechanistic insights into the complex molecular events that cause a deadly type of leukemia. The research, published in the July issue of the journal Cancer Cell, published by Cell Press, illuminates specific mechanisms involved in development of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) and identifies promising new avenues to develop treatments for some of its variant forms.

Part of receipts from singer George Michael's additional concert in Moscow July 6 will be donated to a charity foundation helping children with leukemia.

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston report finding a new way to increase stem cells in blood, suggesting a possible treatment to help patients who undergo chemotherapy or bone marrow transplant for leukemia and other cancers recover their immune function more quickly.

As stem cells in the blood grow older, genetic mutations accumulate that could be at the root of blood diseases that strike people as they age, according to work done in mice by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine.

Through participation in a government-sponsored multi-year study, researchers at the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Wake Forest University have helped confirm that arsenic trioxide - marketed as Trisenox® - significantly improves patient survival when coupled with standard chemotherapy treatment in newly diagnosed patients with acute promyelocytic leukemia, or APL.

St. Jude researchers discover that variations in genes that affect the behavior of leukemia chemotherapy drugs in the body are linked to drug toxicity, a finding that will likely help clinicians predict how patients will respond to specific agents

A fundamental genetic mechanism that shuts down an important gene in healthy immune system cells has been discovered that could one day lead to new therapies against infections, leukemia and other cancers. Results of a University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study on the mechanism, called a somatic stop-codon mutation, are being reported today in the online journal PLoS ONE, published by the Public Library of Science.

Cancer researchers led by Dr. John Dick at Ontario Cancer Institute (OCI) have developed a method to convert normal human blood cells into "human" leukemia stem cells. The converted cells, when transplanted into special mice that permit the growth of human cells, can replicate the entire disease process from the very moment it begins. The findings are published in the journal Science.

Radiation therapy affects not only the cancer mass, but also the surrounding tissues, including the bone marrow. Signals from the cells in the bone marrow damaged by cancer radiotherapy could be involved in the development of secondary acute myeloma by drawing hematopoietic stem cells, the blood-producing cells of the bone marrow, from distant sites into the irradiated bone marrow, according to researchers from the Ontario Cancer Institute.