Drs. Mitchell Sabloff and David Allan contributed to a new study led out of McMaster University that is providing hope for people with acute myeloid leukemia (AML). This kind of cancer grows in the bone marrow and inhibits the production of normal blood cells, often leading to anemia, infections and death.

The research team discovered that fat cells play a key role in normal blood regeneration, but this is disrupted in AML. They also transplanted human AML cells into mice and treated them with small molecules that boost bone marrow fat. This supressed the cancer and stimulated healthy blood regeneration at the same time. One of the molecules they tested is already being used in clinical trials for other conditions, providing hope that human AML trials could begin relatively quickly.

The article titled, "Acute myeloid leukaemia disrupts endogenous myelo-erythropoiesis by compromising the adipocyte bone marrow niche," was published in the journal Nature Cell Biology.

The Ottawa Hospital Leukemia Program is continuing to contribute to this and other translational research.

“This research was possible because people with cancer, including many patients at The Ottawa Hospital, agreed to donate their tissue for research,” said Drs. Sabloff and Allan, both hematologists and researchers at The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa. “We are deeply grateful for their contributions.”