Creating new ways to prevent the development of myeloid blood cancers

Myeloid cancers are a group of blood cancers that affect the bone marrow and blood cells. They include diseases such as acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN) and myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). Bone marrow is the spongey material inside our bones. It is our body’s factory for making blood cells. In this factory there are workers known as myeloid cells which have the important job of making different types of blood cells such as red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Our body needs all of these cells to keep us healthy. However, sometimes something goes wrong in this blood cell factory. Our myeloid worker cells can start making too many or not enough of certain types of blood cells, or changes can happen which mean the cells are unable to do their job properly. This can lead to certain types of blood cancer. Some of these blood cancers can be treated, but others cannot be cured, so we need to find new strategies to manage the disease.

In their previous research Professor Vassiliou and his team have found that many individuals at risk of getting these types of blood cancers can be identified years in advance, before they develop any symptoms. This early identification means that there may be a way to prevent these cancers before they take hold. In this project, Professor Vassiliou and his team plan to take a new approach to find out how we might prevent myeloid cancers. They want to understand more about how and why certain blood cancers develop and want to see whether there are ways they can intervene early, to prevent people from developing the full disease.

The overall aim of this project is to work out whether we might be able to prevent the development of certain blood cancers. Professor Vassiliou and his team plan to do this by:

• Developing a screening tool that will allow doctors to check for and predict whether people are likely to develop these types of blood cancers.
• Conducting experiments in the lab to identify what could be causing the development of these types of blood cancers.
• Carrying out research to understand the role of important genes or changes in cells that may lead to the development of these types of blood cancers.
• Working out how we might intervene with medications to prevent these types of blood cancer from developing by conducting initial experiments in the lab.

Importantly this project will help build a national clinic, which will allow people who are at a higher risk of developing these types of blood cancers to receive testing and treatments in the future.