Funded by the Dick Vitale Pediatric Cancer Research Fund
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children. Many children survive with current treatments but when the disease recurs, it is often deadly and as such we need new treatment options for these children.In most cancers, a protein called beta-catenin is highly prevalent, making cancer cells grow faster. We thought this would be true for ALL but found the opposite. In ALL, beta-catenin is kept at very low levels because the cells quickly break it down. When it does appear, it works with a partner called LEF1 instead of its usual partner, TCF7. This pair slows cancer growth and can even make the cells die.This means ALL cells are very sensitive to beta-catenin buildup. We can use this weakness to our advantage. We have found four kinds of existing drugs, already tested in people for other diseases, which block the breakdown of beta-catenin in different ways.Our goal is to test these drugs to see which works best against ALL that does not respond to chemotherapy. Because these drugs are already known to be safe, we can move faster toward clinical testing in children. If successful, this approach could give new hope to families facing relapsed leukemia.
