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Leukaemia 'firsts' in cancer research and treatment

Nature Reviews Cancer volume 16, pages 163–172 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Our understanding of cancer biology has been radically transformed over recent years with a more realistic grasp of its multilayered cellular and genetic complexity. These advances are being translated into more selective and effective treatment of cancers and, although there are still considerable challenges, particularly with drug resistance and metastatic disease, many patients with otherwise lethal malignancies now enjoy protracted remissions or cure. One largely unheralded theme of this story is the extent to which new biological insights and novel clinical applications have their origins with leukaemia and related blood cell cancers, including lymphoma. In this Timeline article, I review the remarkable and ground-breaking role that studies in leukaemia have had at the forefront of this progress.

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Figure 1: Milestones in leukaemia research that have paved the way for scientific and clinical cancer discoveries.
Figure 2: Clonal evolution models.
Figure 3: Development of combination chemotherapy for leukaemia.
Figure 4: Reversing differentiation arrest in leukaemias.

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Acknowledgements

M.G. is supported by Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research (now Bloodwise), the Wellcome Trust [105104/Z/14/Z] and The Institute of Cancer Research. The author is very grateful to Professor T. Andrew Lister, a friend and colleague who helped to introduce him to clinical leukaemia many years ago and has provided constructive suggestions on this article. This historical Timeline article covers a time frame of many decades and an extensive field of biomedical research and clinical endeavour. The author apologizes for the inevitable omissions; it's a complex narrative.

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  1. Mel Greaves is at the Centre for Evolution and Cancer, The Institute of Cancer Research, Brookes Lawley Building, 15 Cotswold Road, Sutton SM2 5NG, UK.,

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Greaves, M. Leukaemia 'firsts' in cancer research and treatment. Nat Rev Cancer 16, 163–172 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrc.2016.3

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