Tulane Cancer Center: News Release 02/17/2005 Hemenway

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 17, 2005
Tulane Cancer Center Pediatrician Studies Leukemia-Killing Molecule

CONTACT Melanie Cross, (504) 988-6592, mcross@tulane.edu

NEW ORLEANS -- The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society awarded a grant of more than $350,000 to Charles S. Hemenway, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Tulane University School of Medicine, to study a molecule that kills the leukemia cells of individuals who have an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL).

Leukemia is a malignant disease of the bone marrow and blood. In Louisiana there are approximately 500 new cases of leukemia diagnosed each year and approximately 400 deaths each year attributed to leukemia, according to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. In fact, leukemia causes more deaths than any other cancer among children and young adults under the age of 20. Scientists believe that ALL can arise when genetic material contained in chromosomes of developing blood cells is broken and rearranged, a condition referred to as a chromosome translocation.

"In up to 10 percent of ALL cases, a break occurs in chromosomes 4 and 11 and a portion of 4 is joined to a fragment of chromosome 11," Dr. Hemenway says. As a consequence, the genes located at these break points are fused together to produce a "chimera" - named for the mythical entity whose head is derived from one animal and whose tail is from another. In the case of t(4;11) leukemia, the chimeric gene is designated MLL-AF4.

"Unfortunately, t(4;11) ALL is associated with a very poor prognosis, even in children for whom ALL tends to be more easily cured. The outcome is particularly grim in babies with leukemia, in whom the majority have t(4;11) ALL," says Dr. Hemenway, a researcher at the Tulane Cancer Center.

Dr. Hemenway's lab has developed a molecule that blocks one of the important activities of the MLL-AF4 chimera, effectively killing t(4;11) leukemia cells grown in the laboratory, while sparing healthy bone marrow cells. He will use the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society grant to refine, test and optimize this molecule for the treatment of t(4;11) leukemia. In 2003, Dr. Hemenway received the 2003 Mauvernay Research Excellence Award presented by the Tulane Cancer Center for his research into the "Rational Development of an Inhibitor of t(4;11) Leukemia."

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary health organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research, education and patient services. Since its founding in 1949, the society has invested more than $360 million in research, $45 million in 2004 alone.

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This page is http://www.som.tulane.edu/cancer/pr20050217.html
An abbreviated version of this press release appears on the webpage of Tulane University's main newsroom at http://www2.tulane.edu/article_news_details.cfm?ArticleID=5641.
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Tulane Cancer Center, Box SL-68
1430 Tulane Avenue
New Orleans, Louisiana 70112-2699
(504) 988-6060, fax (504) 988-6077
http://www.som.tulane.edu/cancer