The funding comes as part of Blood Cancer UK’s £350,000 investment for new innovative projects at institutions around the UK to gain a better understanding about the country’s third largest cancer killer.

Dr Katrina Lappin and her team want to understand how cancer cells avoid detection by the body's immune system so they can find ways to help it to better target the cancer cells.  
 
Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) is a fast and aggressive growing type of blood cancer that can be very difficult to treat. It affects a type of blood cell called, myeloid cells, stopping them from growing properly.  

Blood Cancer UK’s latest data shows that in Northern Ireland alone, at least 35,000 years of life were lost to blood cancer in a 10-year period among people diagnosed between 2009 and 2019. And AML contributed to nearly a quarter of the years of life lost.  

Currently, many people with AML are treated with therapies such chemotherapy but these treatments don’t always work, and many people see their cancer come back.

Dr Lappin is studying genetic changes, common in AML to see how they affect the way cancer cells interact with the immune system. 

Their experiments show that certain common genetic mutations, may help leukaemia cells “hide” from immune attack. However, when the researchers treated cells with existing drugs that target these mutations, sometimes in combination with standard chemotherapy, the cancer cells released immune-stimulating signals. This could make the cancer more visible to the immune system, and more responsive to immunotherapy. 

For Dr Lappin this work is deeply personal. Because almost 30 years ago her granddad, who was only 64, passed away two-weeks after his AML diagnosis. 

Speaking about the goal of the project Dr Lappin from the Patrick G. Johnston Centre for Cancer Research at Queen’s University Belfast said: “In our previous work we’ve found certain genes that are responsible for helping cancer cells to go undetected by the immune system.

"With this new funding, we’ll conduct experiments to see how blood cancer cells communicate with the immune system, and find out how they are able to hide, then divide and multiply. If our project is successful, it might point to new ways we could harness the power of the immune system to seek out and destroy the cancer.

"Because I know what blood cancer takes away from families, I’m determined that along the way, we’ll ensure the results reach beyond the lab by sharing them with patients, families, and clinicians." 

Speaking about the funding, Dr Suzanne Rix, Research Manager at Blood Cancer UK, said: “Blood cancer is the UK’s third biggest cancer killer, and too many people with acute myeloid leukaemia die too soon. We know beating blood cancer will take the hard work of all our researchers, and increased investment in research, which is why we've committed to fund £70 million in research over the next five years.

"Ultimately, research like this could offer new alternative ways to treat blood cancer with fewer side effects for people who see their cancer come back.” 

Media

Media inquiries to Sian Devlin at s.devlin@qub.ac.uk