By Xinhua
Beijing : Scientists in UK reported a breakthrough study that for the first time confirmed the existence of cancer stem cells that cause acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, according to media reports Friday.
The achievement came after doctors treating four-year-old Olivia Murphy, from Bromley, learned that her identical twin, Isabella, had not developed the illness, which offers a opportunity to identify the specific cells in the body that lead to childhood leukaemia.
David Grant, of the charity Leukaemia Research, said: “Current treatment is very crude. If we know the target that we need to hit to cure this disease, then we can develop new treatments.
“This research means that we can now test whether the treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia in children can be correlated with either the disappearance or persistence of the leukaemia stem cell.” said Tariq Enver, a researcher at the University of Oxford, who worked on the study.
“Our next goal is to target both the pre-leukaemic stem cell and the cancer stem cell itself with new or existing drugs to cure leukaemia while avoiding the debilitating and often harmful side effects of current treatments,” said Enver.
Leukaemia, the most common cancer form of childhood, affects 500 British children each year and starts in the bone marrow where blood cells are made.
It’s thought a few hidden pre-leukaemia cells are scattered through the bone. One mutates, turning into an aggressive leukaemia stem cell that divide uncontrollably destroying the normal bone marrow leading to leukaemia’s lethal symptoms.