Researchers at the University of Cincinnati Cancer Center's Leukemia and Drug Development Lab are developing new treatments for blood cancers, which are highly heterogeneous and often develop resistance to existing therapies.

The upcoming Blood Cancer Healing Center will unify research, clinical, and patient care activities, enabling faster access to patient samples and more rapid decision-making in treatment development.

This research relies heavily on patient blood samples, including from newly diagnosed and relapsed patients, to test drug compounds on patient-derived cancer cells, facilitating personalized treatment approaches.

Lomonitinib has shown promising results in preclinical testing, leading to FDA approval for Phase 1 clinical trials through collaborations like the Beat AML trial, to evaluate its safety and effectiveness.

The team has focused on the FLT-3 mutation, present in up to 30% of AML cases, and collaborated with Eilean Therapeutics to develop lomonitinib as a treatment-resistant drug to overcome resistance to therapies like gilteritinib.

The lab employs a 'bench-to-bedside' and 'bedside-to-bench' approach, learning from patient responses to develop better therapies and anticipate resistance mechanisms, with rapid feedback loops to improve treatment strategies.

This integrated environment fosters real-time collaboration among clinicians, researchers, and patients, accelerating the translation of laboratory discoveries into clinical therapies.

The team emphasizes a 'fail fast' approach to quickly abandon unpromising research lines and focus resources on the most promising treatments, ensuring faster clinical application and patient safety.

Researchers analyze patient samples to identify new mutations and work with pharmaceutical companies to develop and test new therapeutic molecules through Phase 1 trials.

Despite advances in other cancers, blood cancers like AML have a stagnant five-year survival rate of around 30%, which has remained unchanged for decades, highlighting the urgent need for innovative research.

The proximity of research and clinical teams in the new facility allows for rapid decision-making and streamlined translation of research findings into patient care, potentially speeding up the discovery process.

Research findings have been published in the journal Blood, demonstrating ongoing efforts to combat blood cancer through mutation identification and personalized therapies.

Blood cancers are highly heterogeneous, with multiple mutations contributing to treatment resistance, which the team describes using a 'colorful sprinkles' analogy to emphasize the diversity and complexity of mutations.