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Bone Drug Kills Leukemia in Mice

A bone drug already on the market for osteoporosis may kill chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) stem cells thought to persist in the bone marrow after standard therapy, lowering the likelihood of disease recurrence, according to a new study in mice led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital, the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and the Harvard Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology.

The study, published in Nature Medicine, provides the first evidence in mice that altering the bone environment to make it inhospitable to leukemia stem cells can improve CML outcomes. Current CML treatments effectively target leukemia cells but not leukemia stem cells, and therefore the disease is rarely cured, the study authors said.

The research also suggests that CML and a related, more severe disease— acute myeloid leukemia (AML)— are sensitive to different changes in the bone marrow environment and may therefore require different treatment approaches.

“Traditionally, cancer therapies have always tried to target the cancer cells themselves,” said David Scadden, HMS Gerald and Darlene Jordan Professor of Medicine at Mass General and senior author of the paper. “Our work shows there might be value in targeting the cancer’s home environment as well, in combination.”

“We stepped outside the box to show it’s not all about the tumor, it’s also about where it sits,” added Daniela Krause, HMS instructor in pathology at Mass General and first author of the paper. “That hadn’t been shown before in leukemia.”

http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2013/11/bone-drug-kills-leukemi...