Recognising super mean T-ALL cells to cure more kids!

This project was selected in the framework of our fourth European call: FIGHT KIDS CANCER 2023. It is jointly financed by Imagine for Margo, Kriibskrank Kanner Fondatioun, CRIS Cancer Foundation, KiKa and KickCancer.

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Acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children, which can affect either B- or T-cells (B or T-ALL). The current cure rate amounts to about 80% of all patients.

When a child with T-ALL does not respond to the initial treatment (“resistant disease”) or sees its cancer come back (“relapse”), his or her chance to cure falls below 25%. To improve those patients’ chances of survival, we need to improve our understanding of the T-ALL biology and to identify “biomarkers” that will help us to understand which patients are most likely to resist to treatment or relapse.

However, research into an improved understanding of T-ALL mechanisms is difficult because the number of patients per country is limited. To overcome this, 14 European countries have joined forces to develop one single clinical trial for children and AYAs called “ALLTogether1”. This wide clinical trial brings together a critical number of patients’ samples (200 new patients with T-ALL per year) that can be studied to improve our understanding of T-ALL resistance mechanisms.

This study aims at analysing changes in genes and proteins in resisting T-ALL cells, after expansion of these cells in mice. The researchers will use artificial intelligence to create computer simulations of the composition of the leukaemia cells to predict response to novel treatments. In addition, leukaemia cells will be tested in the lab to understand how possible combinations of existing drugs can kill leukaemia cells.

This project aims to develop a test platform to determine which combinations of existing drugs will be effective to treat this specific population of patients with T-cell leukaemia. This research will speed up drug development and improve access to personalised treatments in the future.