Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Resistance revealed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia

The treatment of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the great success stories in oncology. However, patients who fail to achieve remission or relapse after chemotherapy continue to have a very poor prognosis, and the mechanisms underlying therapy failures are largely unknown. A new study suggests that gain-of-function mutations in NT5C2, a gene that encodes an enzyme that metabolizes chemotherapeutic drugs used against ALL, contribute to chemotherapy resistance (pages 368–371).

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Model of mutant NT5C2-mediated drug resistance.

References

  1. Huguet, F. et al. J. Clin. Oncol. 27, 911–918 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Fielding, A.K. et al. Blood 109, 944–950 (2007).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Ernst, T. & Hochhaus, A. Semin. Oncol. 39, 58–66 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Poulikakos, P.I. & Rosen, N. Cancer Cell 19, 11–15 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Tzoneza, G. et al. Nat. Med. 19, 368–371 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Brouwer, C. et al. Clin. Chim. Acta 361, 95–103 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Galmarini, C.M., Jordheim, L. & Dumontet, C. Leuk. Lymphoma 44, 1105–1111 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Hunsucker, S.A., Mitchell, B.S. & Spychala, J. Pharmacol. Ther. 107, 1–30 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Pieters, R. et al. Leuk. Res. 16, 873–880 (1992).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Meyer, J.A. et al. Nat. Genet. 45, 290–294 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Vrooman, L.M. & Silverman, L.B. Curr. Opin. Pediatr. 21, 1–8 (2009).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Sharma, S.V. et al. Cell 141, 69–80 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Ernst, T. et al. Leukemia 26, 1701–1703 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Zhang, J. et al. Nature 481, 157–163 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jon C. Aster or Daniel J. DeAngelo.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Aster, J., DeAngelo, D. Resistance revealed in acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Nat Med 19, 264–265 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3119

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm.3119

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing