Elizabeth A Eklund

In this research project, samples of blood and bone marrow will be studied in the laboratory to learn more about the nature of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) cells and how various medications and chemical agents affect them.

The purpose of this study is to learn about how CML leukemia cells become resistant to medications or progress to acute leukemia (blast crisis). This may prove to be helpful in the design of new more effective drugs for the treatment of CML in the future.

In this research study, samples of bone marrow or peripheral blood will be collected from patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) to learn more about the effect of some new drugs on CML cells in the laboratory. The purpose of this study is to understand how these new drugs stop leukemia cells from growing. This research may prove to be helpful in the design of new and more effective treatments for leukemia in the future.

Researchers have found that about 60% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) will obtain a remission following treatment with combinations of chemotherapy drugs. However, relapse after treatment remains a problem, and can be as high as 80% in some types of AML patients. Therefore, it would be beneficial to identify specific treatment approaches for patients at a high risk for relapse. One characteristic associated with high relapse rates is an increase in proteins that are referred to as Hox proteins in the leukemia cells. Increase in Hox proteins prevents production of some other proteins, including a protein referred to as Triad1. An increase in Triad1 protein in bone marrow cells may be important to control the growth of such cells. Decreased Triad1 in leukemia cells may therefore promote their growth, but this has not been previously studied.

The purpose of this study is to investigate if the lack of Triad1 in leukemia cells contributes to resistance of some leukemias to chemotherapy drugs. This research may prove to be helpful in the design of new and more effective treatments for leukemia in the future.

At a time when you are having a bone marrow biopsy and aspirate performed as part of your standard medical care, about an additional 2.5 teaspoons (12.5 mL) of bone marrow will be collected for this research study.