Funded by The Little Princess Trust and administered by CCLG
Lead investigator: Professor Owen Williams, University College London
Award: £197,112.86
Awarded July 2022
Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia is the most common form of blood cancer in children and young adults. Most children with this blood cancer can be cured by chemotherapy. However, this cancer still returns in a significant number of patients and is then very difficult to treat.
Professor Owen Williams and his team at University College London have discovered that acute lymphoblastic leukaemia relies on a process that takes place inside the cancer cells. When the process is blocked, it triggers a defence response that causes most acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells to die – including those which returned after initial treatment.
The researchers have found that combining a medicine that blocks the process with a medicine that triggers the defensive response could be even more effective at killing cancer cells.
In this project. Professor Owen Williams hopes to find out exactly how the cellular process is linked to the defensive response in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia cells. The researchers also plan to use laboratory models of the cancer to find out how suitable this approach is for developing new treatment options which could cure children and young adults.