Australia makes hopeful discovery in cure of a common leukemia

William Atkins
Thursday, 07 August 2008 21:22

Science - Health

Dr.  Gill is currently both the Chair of the Cancer Collaborative Group and the Director of Clinical Haematology and Research (Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research) at the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

The Gill team has been able to keep the cancer cells alive in a culture beaker for up to three months using one growth factor.

In addition, another growth factor has also been found that allows the cancer cells to stay alive for over three months outside the body.

They will now pursue, according to Gill, a way to block these two “growth factors” so as to be able to kill these cancer cells. Once this is accomplished, the researchers will be able to develop a way to cure chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Gill adds, "By knowing what makes the cells grow we can now attempt to block these growth factors and therefore the cells will die. This will ultimately lead to more targeted therapies being developed, which will have the ability to cure the cancer." [Brisbane Times: “Brisbane scientists make cancer 'breakthrough'”]

The Gill team is hopeful that they will be able to have trial (non-human) treatments within five years, by the year 2013, and human trials within seven years, by the year 2015.

According to the National Cancer Institute, an estimated 15,340 new cases of CLL were diagnosed in 2007 within the United States, along with 4,500 deaths related to CLL.