Differentiating AMKL

A team from the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard has shown that inhibiting Aurora kinase A induces cancer cell differentiation in acute megakaryoblastic leukemia, thus reducing tumor load and increasing survival in a mouse model of the disease.¹ The researchers hope to start clinical trials of Aurora kinase A inhibitors in patients with adult acute megakaryoblastic leukemia next summer.

Acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL) is a rare form of acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) that is characterized by immature, hyperproliferative megakaryoblasts. Standard of care is chemotherapy...