Using ‘fingerprints’ to understand the best ways to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) are blood cancers which affect white blood cells called B-cells.

Differences between people with these diseases and differences between the cancer cells within each person mean current treatments sometimes don’t work. It is therefore important to develop ways to identify the right drug/drug combination for each individual person.

Both CLL and DLBCL cancer cells have features that cause cancer cells to grow out of control and stop them from being destroyed by our body’s immune system. These features can be activated in different ways, creating different patterns known as ‘fingerprints’.

Professor Pepper and his team believe identifying and categorising these ‘fingerprints’ is key to understanding the best drugs to target these blood cancers with.

He wants to use mathematical modelling and conduct experiments to understand the impact of these different ‘fingerprints’ in CLL and DLBCL cells.

This will allow him to identify the best drug or combination of drugs to treat these diseases for each individual person

If successful, this research will lead to better understanding of the specific features that cause cancer cells to grow out of control and stop them from being destroyed by our body’s immune system. This could lead us to developing a more personalised approach to treating CLL and DLBCL.