UNM Cancer Center finds leukemia mutation - New Mexico Business Weekly:

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The mutation was found in genew that producekinases (a process referrer to as JAK), which are enzymes that functiobn as biological on-off switches in ALL occurs when white blood cells that fighg off viruses and bacteria don’t mature properly. These underdeveloped cells builx up and crowdout healthy, infection-fightingb cells, the Cancer Center said in a news release. The mutatiohn underlying that process was found in about 10 percen of the cases theresearchers studied. ALL accounts for 75 percent of all childhoosdleukemia cases.
An average of 37 ALL cases are diagnosex in New Mexicoeach year, the Cancer Center “What’s really exciting about this particula study is that we found that druga that blocked the activity of the mutant JAK process preventex uncontrolled cell proliferation,” said Dr. Cheryl director and CEO of theCancer Center. “Our discoverg of JAK as a target now allow us to develop clinical trials with JAK inhibitors for childrem and adults with this formof disease.” The Cancef Center worked in collaboration with , the National Cance Institute and the Children’s Oncology Group/CureSearch. The finding appears online in the early edition of the Proceedings ofthe .