Weakness of leukemic stem cells discovered
Monday, August 4, 2014 - 11:00
in Health & Medicine
Despite improved therapy, only one out of every two adult patients survive acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The mean survival time for this disease, which predominantly occurs in the elderly, is less than a year for patients over 65 years. It is assumed that leukemic stem cells, which cannot be completely eliminated during treatment, are the origin of relapse. However, as has been recently discovered, these cells do have a weakness: the enzyme 5-lipoxygenase (5-LO) plays a significant role in the survival of leukaemic AML stem cells, it turns out.