Leukaemia drug trials offer hope

THE blood of patients taking a revolutionary drug that “melts’’ leukaemia cells will be analysed to uncover why some cancers evade destruction or become resistant to treatment.

New technology capable of analysing thousands of cancer cells in a single second is being tested on patients in clinical trials of the potent anti-cancer drug venetoclax and other next generation therapies.

Venetoclax, developed and tested in Australia, has delivered impressive results in patients with the most common form of blood cancer — chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research’s Associate Professor Daniel Gray said every patient responded differently to treatment and they aimed to pinpoint why.

“We know from previous studies that some people will respond really well and others will not and we hope to learn what’s special about the cancers of people who are resistant to therapy,” Prof Gray said.

Vials of blood from 50 leukaemia patients on two clinical trials of venetoclax and other new therapies will be collected for the study. More than 40 molecular probes will be attached to cancer cells from the blood samples and technology called mass cytometry will be used to study the cells.

“The data ... will allow us to build ‘family trees’ of the cancer cells in each patient,” Prof Gray said.