Researchers distinguish new type o...( e said. Or is this translocation reall...)

These findings suggest that as we explore more of these cancers, we will discover meaningful prognostic subsets based on gene expression profiles, said Korsmeyer.

The studies also uncovered promising drug targets that may improve treatment of MLL, said Korsmeyer. Specifically, he cited as an example a gene called FLT3, whose increased activity most clearly distinguished MLL from ALL or AML. The FLT3 gene encodes an enzyme that is a cellular switch called a tyrosine kinase, a type of enzyme that is already targeted by drugs that are in development. The serendipitous discovery of the distinctive expression of FLT3 activity and of the other MLL-related genes emphasizes the value of large-scale gene expression profiling, said Korsmeyer.

The beauty of the gene chip is that, much to our surprise, we could deal from the genomic equivalent of a whole deck of cards and come up with such a distinctive hand, he said. We couldnt have imagined that amidst this vast amount of data, we could not only clearly distinguish MLL, but come up with FLT3 as a testable drug target for treating the disease.

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Contact: Jim Keeley
keeleyj@hhmi.org
301-215-8858
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
3-Dec-2001