New Discovery Sets the Foundation to Expand Personalized Chemotherapy for Leukemia Patients

In a study lead by St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital,  an international research team has determined how inherited gene variations lead to severe drug toxicity that may threaten chances for a cure in children with leukemia.
According to the press release:

The research appears as an advance online publication today in the scientific journal Nature Genetics and focuses on treatment-related toxicity associated with a class of medication called thiopurines, which are widely used as anti-cancer and immunosuppressing drugs. Thiopurines such as mercaptopurine are indispensable for curing acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer.

Jun J. Yang, Ph.D., an associate member of the St. Jude Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences,

This study is key to the development of more effective, personalized ALL therapy because it provides a clear explanation of how variations in the NUDT15 gene change drug metabolism and cause toxicity in patients. We are planning clinical studies to move these findings from the laboratory to the clinic with the hope to guide individualized therapy in the future.

Click here to view the full press release.