A common and inexpensive drug may be used to counteract treatment resistance in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), one of the most common forms of blood cancer. This is the conclusion of a study in mice and human blood cells performed at Karolinska Institutet and SciLifeLab and published in the medical journal EMBO Molecular Medicine. The researchers will now launch a clinical study to test the new combination treatment in patients.

Leukemia is a group of blood cancers that results in excess amounts of white blood cells. There are both chronic forms of leukemia that progress slowly over many years and acute types of leukemia that evolve rapidly. AML affects more than 20,000 people in the United States each year, and the mortality rate is high especially in older patients.

One of the most common drugs to treat AML is cytarabine (ara-C), a cytotoxic drug that interferes with DNA replication. However, many patients do not respond to the treatment because their leukemic cells express high levels of the enzyme SAMHD1, which breaks down the active metabolite of cytarabine, ara-CTP. These patients have a significantly worse survival rate than patients with low leukemic levels of SAMHD1. Therefore, one promising strategy to improve the treatment of AML is to inhibit the effects of this enzyme on cytarabine.

Marilyn had extensive fusion surgery all the way from her midback to the entire lower back. The surgery was done to fix her curvature in her spine.

Unfortunately, it did not help and she continued to have pain.

She has tried numerous injections and even strong pain killers which not only failed but also gave her side effects.

Her own bone marrow stem cells were extracted and after concentrating, they were injected back into her thoracic and lumbar discs.

Marilyn is now showing significant improvement in her pain. More importantly, there has been an increase in her function. In our experience, those patients who respond to stem cell therapy, their pain relief lasts for years.

Read below to find out more about how stem cells are relieving pain from failed fusion surgeries.

The chemicals, known as PFAS, have been associated with cancer, liver damage, and developmental issues.

The virus is from the same family as MERS and SARS, which caused deadly international outbreaks.