In vitro studies of AML

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is an aggressive disease characterized by accumulation of a large amount of immature blood cells in the bone marrow. These cells are incapable of maturation into functional granulocytes, monocytes, platelets or red blood cells.

AML is life threatening with a high risk of anemia, infections and severe bleeding. In Norway 120 people develop the disease each year (total population in Norway is 5 million). As a result of accumulation of more mutations in the DNA that directs the development of blood cells, the disease has a higher prevalence in the population above 60 years of age. The cancer therapy is harsh, and many patients would not tolerate this kind of treatment, and therefore can only receive palliative treatment (especially patients above 60 years). The survival for these patients is only 3-4 months, while the patients who are strong enough to receive intensive chemotherapy, have a 40 % chance of survival the first 5 years after diagnosis.

Because AML is most common in the older population, and these patients often cannot tolerate the intense chemotherapy given to the younger patients, there is a great need to increase our understanding of the biology of the AML cancer cells, to be able to find alternative treatment for these patients. The goal is to find treatments with fewer side effects and at the same time have a more pinpointed effect against the dysregulation in the blood cell maturation process, and thereby potentially have more curative effects. Because the dysregulation can appear in different types of blood cells, and in different levels of their maturation, the term AML includes several subgroups that most likely will require different approaches in regards to treatment.

In our lab we are studying AML cells, isolated from patients, with regards to growth regulation (proliferation, apoptosis, differentiation and cell cycle), their interaction with immune competent cells, induction of angiogenesis, the cytokine/chemokine network, gene regulation/transcription factors, and general signal transduction under specific growth conditions, such as under the influence of new cancer treatment regimes.