Beating relapses and resistance to treatment in blood cancer (AML)

This project was selected in the framework of our European call: FIGHT KIDS CANCER 2020. It is jointly financed by Imagine for Margo, Kriibskrank Kanner Fondatioun and KickCancer.

It is thanks to your participation in RUN TO KICK 2020 that this innovative project is funded!

Discover the project's video.

Many children with acute myeloid leukaemia’s (AML) relapse (35-45%) and the overall survival chances remain low (60-75%).

Genetic abnormalities carried by AML cells are responsible for the relapse and the occurrence of the mechanisms of resistance to treatment.

We now know that the cells from the microenvironment of the bone marrow play a role in “maintaining” AML cells and in mechanisms of resistance to treatment. This project “ALARM3” will focus on AML cells at relapse and the understanding of their interactions with the bone marrow microenvironment in order to develop new treatments.

The project team will work in close collaboration with French and British teams that carry out a clinical trial for children with relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukaemia.

This project is focused on relapse and will include:

- A genomic characterisation at first diagnosis and relapse of AML and bone marrow cells,

- A study of the evolution of drug sensitivity between initial diagnosis and relapse,

- An identification of new prognostic markers to improve our ability to identify the patients most at risk of relapse. Prognostic markers are clinical signs that allow us to differentiate one patient group from another (such as the presence of a protein, a specific genomic alternation…).

In conclusion, this project is based on a multi-approach research in order to (i) improve the characterisation of the relapse and resistance mechanisms, (ii) discover new targeted drugs and (iii) understand the evolution of the treatment’s sensitivity with the ultimate goal to improve the patients’ outcome through a personalisation of the therapeutic strategies.

This project aims at identifying news treatment options for children with acute myeloid leukaemia. As a result, the project will benefit all children (Belgian, European and beyond!) if the study’s conclusions are encouraging.