AGEING-CELL CURE HOPE FOR CANCER

FORCING immature blood cancer cells to grow up could be the secret to overcoming the killer disease, following a breakthrough by Melbourne scientists.

In a discovery that may open up ways of treating acute myeloid leukaemia, researchers have identified a ‘Benjamin Button’ mechanism that allows blood cancer cells to reverse their ageing and trick the immune system to not dispose them.

More than 1000 Australians are diagnosed with AML each year, but only a third are still alive five years later.

The findings of the Monash University, The Alfred hospital and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute collaboration could serve as a blueprint for laboratories working on drugs they hope will force the cancer cells to mature.

While the body’s immune system disposes of 100 billion white blood cells a day when they reach maturity, leukaemia stem cells refuse to grow up and are left behind to multiply in bone marrow.

Lead researcher Associate Professor Ross Dickins from Monash and his team have identified a process the AML cells use to reverse their ageing, which if switched off, could greatly improve treatment.

The research is published in Cell Stem Cell journal, highlighting the importance of a new class of drugs known as differentiation therapy.

Rather than trying to kill the leukaemia, differentiation therapy drugs trick the immature diseased cells into maturing so the immune system will then remove them.