By Brandon Ponder | Employee Giving/Matching Gifts Liaison
Powerful but rare immune cells taken from a parent might provide a safe, effective and affordable approach to preventing cancer’s return in young patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), according to new St. Jude research. The finding is important because relapse is a key reason AML cure rates remain about 70 percent. AML, a cancer of certain white blood cells, is diagnosed in about 500 children and teenagers annually in the U.S. This work builds on earlier St. Jude research into natural killer or NK cells, including how to match NK cell donors and recipients to ensure patients receive the most potent cancer-killing donor cells. NK cells are the body’s first line of defense against cancer and infections, but they account for less than 10 percent of the diseasefighting immune cells. Ten young AML patients who had completed standard therapy and who were in remission participated in the pilot study, which was designed to test the therapy’s safety. The work appeared in the January 19 online edition of the Journal of Clinical Oncology. To read more about this study, please visit: http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=9d8eb81ca67d6210VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD&vgnextchannel=5bedc10e16be0110VgnVCM1000001e0215acRCRD
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