Anaplastic lymphoma kinase-negative large cell lymphoma (ALCL) is a common form of T-cell cancer, accounting for 15% of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases in the United States. In a study published yesterday in Cancer Cell, senior author Dr. Giorigio Inghirami and an international team of researchers discovered the genetic mutations that drive tumor growth, potentially leading to new targeted therapies for T-cell lymphoma. They found,
“Massive sequencing data revealed that more than 38 percent of the tumors contained mutations in two genes, called JAK1 and STAT3. The researchers then examined the results when the genes were left intact and when they were blocked in cell cultures and in animals. They found that there was significantly less tumor growth when JAK1 and STAT3 were inhibited. JAK1 and STAT3 happen to reside along the same pathway, making them increasingly powerful to perpetuate harmful phenotypes once they are created. Dr. Inghirami likens this concept to a car (the cancerous cell) being propelled by gasoline (the mutations along a pathway that enable communication to continue).”
Said Dr. Inghirami,
“Now we have a class of drugs that will potentially work in this population…The interesting part is that pathway is now being found in different diseases – it looks like a recurring motif. So maybe we have the capacity to expand the therapeutic efficacy of this drug to others with similar phenotypes.”
Look to this space for more information about developments regarding treatments for ALCL and other T-cell lymphomas. Currently open clinical trials for T-cell lymphoma can be found here and here.
New Developments in Lymphoma 