Hope for infant cancer therapy

SUE DUNLEVY A BREAKTHROUGH drug is providing hope to tiny babies at risk of dying from an aggressive form of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia – and ultimately all cancer patients.

A team from the Children’s Cancer Institute has proven a ferocious form of the blood cancer that kills half the infants who contract it, became undetectable in mice treated with chemotherapy and the new drug CBL0137.

But institute researcher Dr Klaartje Somers says the groundbreaking treatment has even greater promise because it can be used in all types of cancer including solid tumours like breast and bowel cancer.

Trials are under way in adults in America and it is hoped children in Australia whose cancer has returned will get the chance to take part in the first trial of the new drug in minors at the Sydney Children’s Hospital next year.

The drug works by reactivating the body’s P53 pathway, so it kills off damaged cells. This pathway is commonly mutated in cancer patients and cancer cells suppress it so they can stay alive and keep spreading.

In the International Journal of Cancer, Dr Somers reported her study where mice that were given cancer cells from sick Australian patients were successfully treated with CBL017 combined with chemotherapy.

“When we used the molecule or the chemotherapy by themselves there was a small response but when combined the treatments were highly effective and deleted the cancer cells in the mouse,” Dr Somers said. Dr Somers’ work, under the lead of Dr Michelle Henderson and Professor Michelle Haber, focuses on a deadly blood cancer that devastates tiny babies.

Dr Somers hopes by combining the new treatment with chemotherapy, doctors will be able to dial down the amount of chemotherapy required and reduce the sometimes deadly side effects.