Grant ID | RP150129 |
Awarded On | February 18, 2015 |
Title | Drug Discovery and Mechanistic Studies of Protein Methylation Targeting Leukemia |
Program | Academic Research |
Award Mechanism | Individual Investigator Research Awards for Cancer in Children and Adolescents |
Institution/Organization | Baylor College of Medicine |
Principal Investigator/Program Director | Yongcheng Song |
Cancer Sites | Childhood and Adolescent, Leukemia |
Contracted Amount | $1,733,813 |
Lay Summary |
Acute leukemia is the most common cancer in children and adolescents. Although several subtypes of childhood leukemia have achieved high cure rates, the survivals for a subtype of acute leukemia that has mixed lineage leukemia (MLL) gene translocations are still low. MLL-rearranged leukemia accounts for ~75% of leukemia in infants as well as ~10% in children/adults, with 5-year survival rates being less than 40% (or 20% for patients aged less than 3 months). Current treatments are chemodrugs, which kill all rapidly proliferating cells including normal stem cells in bone marrow and other organs. This causes severe toxicities, side effects and limits the efficacy of these drugs. Due to mutagen... |