Environments in bone marrow (blue, purple and green) as they are invaded by leukaemia cells (yellow). Image: Edwin Hawkins/Delfim Duarte
New research is shedding light on how leukaemia cells can survive cancer treatment, suggesting new possibilities for stopping them in their tracks. Leukaemia is cancer of the blood and it has one of the highest cancer mortality rates. This is partly because there is a high relapse rate, as some cancer cells can survive the initial treatment. These surviving cells are often resistant to treatment, allowing the cancer to spread and become fatal. How these treatment-resistant cells survive initial chemotherapy is not well understood. One popular theory has been that they sit hiding in specific niches within the bone marrow that usually harbour blood stem cells - basic cells that can become all other blood cells. This research is still in its early stages, but we believe we have already gained valuable insights to open up new avenues in the development of novel, more effective leukaemia treatments.
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