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The first study to demonstrate that obesity can directly accelerate the progression of acute lymphoblastic leukemia has been conducted.

Researchers have identified unique metabolic properties that allow a specific type of stem cell in the body to survive and replicate in low-oxygen environments.

Although hematopoietic cell transplantation cures many blood diseases, two-thirds of long-term survivors report at least one chronic health condition after the procedure.

A unique "partnership" between two types of bone marrow stem cells could lead to advances in regenerative medicine.

Clinical trials using patients' own immune cells to target tumors have yielded promising results. However, this approach usually works only if the patients also receive large doses of drugs designed to help immune cells multiply rapidly, and those drugs have life-threatening side effects. Now engineers have devised a way to deliver the necessary drugs by smuggling them on the backs of the cells sent in to fight the tumor. That way, the drugs reach only their intended targets, greatly reducing the risk to the patient.

Although the use of ovarian tissue cryopreservation and transplantation has lead to 13 live births in women with lymphoma or solid tumors, this method of fertility preservation may be unsafe for patients with leukemia, according to a recent study.

An extract of green tea appears to have clinical activity with low toxicity in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who used it in a Phase II clinical trial.

Scientists in Japan may have developed a way to accurately predict those patients who will resist treatment with imatinib, which is the standard of care for chronic myeloid leukemia.

Researchers have discovered the precise source of hematopoietic stem cell maintenance and regulation within the bone marrow. In a new study, they report that the HSCs retain their unique features of multipotency and self-renewal in response to signals from another stem cell population, the mesenchymal stem cells, which create a supportive niche for the HSCs.

Physician-researchers have demonstrated that a lethal skin disease can be successfully treated with stem cell therapy.

Researchers have discovered a direct link between an inherited genetic mutation, a set of developmental abnormalities and a rare form of childhood leukemia called juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia, or JMML. The study demonstrates a new familial link in JMML and has significant implications, the researchers say, for improving the diagnosis and treatment of the disease.

Researchers in Australia have made a discovery that has upended scientists' understanding of programmed cell death and its role in tumor formation. The research team's discovery has implications for the understanding of how cancers develop and will inform the ongoing development of a new class of anti-cancer drugs called BH3 mimetics.

One key to fighting diseases such as leukemia and anemia is gaining an understanding of the genes and molecules that control the function of hematopoietic -- or blood -- stem cells, which provide the body with a constant supply of red and white blood cells and platelets. Biologists have taken a large step toward that end, with the discovery of a novel group of molecules that are found in high concentrations within hematopoietic stem cells and appear to regulate their production.

Researchers have challenged decades of accepted wisdom about bone marrow transplantation with a new study showing that mice receiving purified blood stem cells are less prone to complications than mice receiving stem cells plus purified T cells.

The prognosis for nearly three-quarters of elderly patients on intensive chemotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia is poor, with a median survival of less than six months, according to a new study.

Men who develop prostate cancer, especially the more aggressive and dangerous forms that spread throughout the body, tend to retain denser bones as they age than men who stay free of the disease, suggests new research.

A genetic clue uncovered by scientists enables doctors to predict, for the first time, which children with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) are unlikely to benefit from standard chemotherapy for the disease and should therefore be among the first to receive new treatments in future clinical trials.

A five-year study into the causes of deaths of workers at Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant shows significantly lower death rates from all causes and cancer in general when compared to the overall United States population. This is known by occupational health researchers as the "healthy worker effect." However, death from lymphatic and bone marrow cancers such as leukemia or multiple myeloma were slightly above national rates.

The transplantation of stem cells from a healthy donor (allogeneic) offers the chance of cure for patients with an aggressive form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), irrespective of genetic prognostic factors and the prior course of the disease.

Researchers at Whitehead Institute and Children's Hospital Boston have identified a protein, called Musashi 2, that is predictive of prognosis in acute myeloid leukemia and chronic myeloid leukemia patients. Diagnosed in an estimated 48,000 new patients annually, leukemia is blood cancer characterized by an overgrowth of certain blood cells. Musashi 2 and the cellular functions it affects could potentially represent therapeutic targets in certain types of leukemia.

Researchers have made significant progress in the understanding of blood-producing (hematopoietic) stem cells. The study identifies factors that control the production of hematopoietic stem cells and offers interesting insight critical to the development of novel regenerative therapies and treatments for leukemia.

Allogeneic (donor-derived) stem cell transplant may be a promising option for patients with treatment-resistant chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), regardless of the patient's underlying genetic abnormalities, according to the results of a new study.

New research illuminates in fine detail one of the genetic paths that leads to a particularly aggressive form of leukemia. A team discovered a new tumor-suppressing function of p53, distinct, for instance, from apoptosis, and somewhat related to senescence. They showed that it has the ability to reinforce cell-fate and differentiation programs. In AML, p53 loss leads to cancer by disabling this reinforcement.

Medical researchers have provided one of the first examples of successful radiomitigation in mammals. The investigators found that oral treatment of mice with a drug that inhibits enzymes involved in cell division caused certain groups of bone marrow cells to temporarily stop dividing (which they termed "pharmacological quiescence" or PQ).

Researchers have defined for the first time the mechanism behind three cancer-causing genes in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The findings offer insight on the complex interaction between the genes and their contributions to leukemia, thereby providing the foundation for the design of targeted therapies.

Scientists have discovered a new way to target and destroy a type of cancerous cell. The findings may lead to the development of new therapies to treat lymphomas, leukemias and related cancers.

Researchers in Belgium have discovered a new factor in the development of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a disease that mainly affects children. In the cells of the patients, the specific gene PTPN2 ceases to function, causing the cancer cells to survive longer and grow faster. The study provides genetic and functional evidence for a tumor suppressor role of PTPN2.

Researchers have used an agent, called Oxi4503, to poison leukemia cells and destroy the blood vessels that supply the cells in mouse models of acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML. The researchers plan human tests of the drug later this year.

Dasatanib, a medication currently approved as treatment for drug-resistant chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), provided patients with quicker, better responses as a first therapy than the existing front-line drug, according to new research.

The bone-strengthening drug zoledronic acid (Zometa) can help fight metastatic breast cancer when given before surgery, new research suggests. When the drug was given along with chemotherapy for three months before breast cancer surgery, it reduced the number of women who had tumor cells in their bone marrow at the time of surgery.

Researchers for the first time have determined that bone marrow cells play a critical role in fighting respiratory viruses, making the bone marrow a potential therapeutic target, especially in people with compromised immune systems. They have found that during infections of the respiratory tract, cells produced by the bone marrow are instructed by proteins to migrate to the lungs to help fight infection.

African-Americans and women are less likely than Caucasians and men to undergo bone marrow transplantation to treat cancers of the blood, according to a new analysis. The study's results indicate that additional research is needed to determine why disparities exist in access to bone marrow transplantation and also that the medical community should work to eliminate these inequities.

A Phase I clinical trial of SNS-032, one of the first in a new class of drugs that inhibit cyclin-dependent kinases, demonstrated the drug's safety and potential clinical action against advanced chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

New research discovers a combination of drugs that may prove to be a more effective treatment for a lethal form of leukemia. The study reports that the new therapeutic strategy effectively targets notoriously intractable leukemia stem cells that often escape standard treatment and are a main factor in disease relapse.

A genetic pattern that predicts the likelihood of relapse in patients with one of the most aggressive forms of childhood leukemia has been discovered. Researchers have identified a consistent pattern in five genes that has the potential to enable doctors to identify which patients would benefit from more aggressive treatment when first diagnosed with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Scientists in Germany have discovered that bioavailability and efficacy of the blood cancer drug azacytidine increase when the substance is coupled to a fatty acid.

More individualized therapy and better supportive care helped push the survival for children with acute myeloid leukemia to 71 percent three years after diagnosis, according to new research.

Increased cholesterol levels are being increasingly recognized as risk factors for the onset and progression of several cancers. Now researchers in Portugal show that high levels of cholesterol can affect the microenvironment of the bone marrow, so that more cells move from the bone marrow to peripheral, circulating blood.

Despite public health warnings, drinking is still high among pregnant women. In a new study, acute myeloid leukemia risk increased 56 percent among children of those who drank alcohol.

A groundbreaking trial to test bone-marrow stem cell therapy with a small group of patients with multiple sclerosis has been shown to have possible benefits for the treatment of the disease.

Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) -- a group of serious blood cancers -- are nearly five times more common in seniors than previously thought, according to a new study. The study also showed for the first time that MDS patients are at much higher risk for heart attack, diabetes and other serious complications than other seniors, and that their health care costs are far higher.

Researchers have discovered a network of protein and microRNA molecules that, when imbalanced, contributes to abnormally high levels of a protein called KIT and favors the development of acute myeloid leukemia (AML). The researchers therapeutically targeted this network in mice and forced the disease into remission. They believe that targeting this mechanism and reducing the amount of KIT protein will prove to be a more effective therapy for AML than the current standard of care.

The socioeconomic status of a country has long been considered a potentially significant factor in the availability of high-quality health-care interventions and even a determinant of long-term patient outcomes. A new study reports that in Europe, socioeconomic factors have a direct correlation to the rates and outcomes of stem cell transplantation for patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Researchers have identified childhood cancer survivors who are at increased risk for deteriorating lung health, in part due to the lifesaving bone marrow transplants they underwent years earlier.

Researchers may have found a way to more accurately predict treatment outcomes in young leukemia patients using information from a common and simple complete blood count test, also known as a CBC.

About 40 percent of children and up to 70 percent of adults in remission from acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) will have a relapse. In recent years, doctors have come to believe that this is due to leukemia stem cells, endlessly replicating cancer cells that generate the immature blood cells characteristic of leukemia and are resistant to typical cancer treatments.

Researchers have discovered a previously hidden channel to attack leukemia and other cancer cells, according to a new study. The findings may change the way doctors treat cancer patients.

Researchers have discovered a fundamental step in the development of the immune system, one that allows B cells to mature and fight disease by producing effective antibodies. Immunologists have demonstrated that immature B cells in the bone marrow must receive a positive signal, mediated by the Erk protein, before they can migrate to the spleen where they mature and are activated.