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New Techniques Enabling a Greater Understanding of the Science and Biology of Leukemia: Interview With Dr. Brian Druker
Brian Druker
04/16/2008
Editor's Note:
As new molecular developed therapies have recently begun to impact the treatment of various hematologic malignancies, so too have techniques begun to evolve that enable researchers to more precisely understand what is occurring at the cellular level. According to reports at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) meeting held in December 2007, a number of these techniques -- including epigenetics, gene profiling, and functional cell testing -- have started to illustrate the utility of improved tests for defining how hematologic malignancies survive. As we learn more about these approaches, knowledge about how best to fight the diseases also improves.
If it is possible to find better ways of determining what factors are critical to the cancer's survival, new approaches for neutralizing -- and ultimately shutting down -- the cancer may be achieved by targeting the aberrations more effectively with new therapies.