From chronic to aggressive, how blood cancer in some can progress as a disease

Researchers have identified an important transition point in the shift from chronic to aggressive blood cancer by conducting experiments in mice, providing a new intervention point for hampering the progress of the disease, according to a study. However, for a small percentage of patients, the slower paced disease can transform into an aggressive cancer, called secondary acute myeloid leukemia, that has few effective treatment options. The researchers also tested a drug compound that inhibits DUSP6 and found that the compound - only available for animal research - stopped progression of the chronic disease to the aggressive disease in two different mouse models of the cancer and in mice with human tumours sampled from patients. "A future clinical trial might enrol myeloproliferative neoplasm patients who are taking JAK2 inhibitors and, despite that, show evidence of their disease worsening," said Oh. "At that point, we might add the type of RSK inhibitor that's now in trials to their therapy to see if that helps block progression of the disease into an aggressive secondary acute myeloid leukemia.