Battling And Beating Cancer

Investment in medical research has resulted in a much better understanding of the microbiology of blood cancers, has produced important new treatments that are more efficacious and less toxic, and has improved the lives of so many people impacted by blood cancer.  Progress over the past five to eight years, in particular, has been remarkable and research underway and in research designs offers tremendous promise and hope to people who have been and will be diagnosed with blood cancer.  Blood cancer research has produced important results not only for people with blood cancer, but for people with other forms of cancer and other diseases.  We believe that there is no better research investment than investing in blood cancer research.  Interdisciplinary cooperation and cooperation among leading medical research institutions accelerates the progress.  We are proud that our medical research institutions have the wisdom and commitment to work cooperatively in pursuing groundbreaking research. 

Medical research involves hard work, commitment, and dedication and often  is conducted in the unglamorous setting of a research laboratory.  It requires the commitment of resources and money.  Private donations and fundraising are critical to medical research and drive the developments.  As people impacted by blood cancer, we believe it is important to lead efforts to raise money and awareness for blood cancer research.  From time to time, we will highlight the excellent research conducted by the leading area institutions.

The University of Chicago Comprehensive Cancer Center (UCCCC) is continuing the long tradition of groundbreaking collaborative research in cancers of the blood and lymph systems. In 1943, Leon Jacobson, MD, used the first chemotherapeutic agent, nitrogen mustard, to treat leukemia.  Dr. Jacobson also performed the first experimental bone marrow transplants in animals, laying the groundwork for bone marrow transplantation in humans, and he discovered that the kidney is the source of erythropoietin, the hormone that controls the formation of red blood cells and maintains the normal number of these cells.

The founder of the UCCCC, John Ultmann, MD, introduced an innovative treatment for Hodgkin's disease and other lymphomas, which led to a 60 percent reduction in death rates from lymphomas. In 1972, Janet Rowley, MD, identified the first consistent chromosomal translocations associated with cancer, including a translocation in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). This extraordinary discovery was the first to indicate that molecular genetic changes are responsible for the development of cancer, and provided the foundation for the development of imatinib (Gleevec), cancer’s first “wonder drug.” Dr. Rowley and Michelle Le Beau, PhD, found that therapy-related acute myeloid leukemia (t-AML) is characterized by loss of chromosomes 5 and 7, thereby implicating tumor suppressor genes in the pathogenesis of leukemia, and mapped the first translocation using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). FISH is now a useful diagnostic tool for leukemias and lymphomas.

Today, James Vardiman, MD is the lead author developing the World Health Organization’s classification of neoplastic myeloid disorders.  Michael Thirman, MD, leads a Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) team of investigators from many disciplines, who are exploring the genetic changes that cause leukemia and lymphoma, and are designing  precisely targeted, potent, and minimally toxic therapies.  Dorothy Sipkins, MD, PhD, is uncovering new insights into how leukemia takes over privileged "niches" within the bone marrow, enabling researchers to develop treatment strategies that could protect healthy, blood-forming stem cells, and improve the outcomes of bone marrow transplantation for leukemia and other types of cancer. Dr. Le Beau is leading another interdisciplinary team of scientists and physicians who are advancing understanding and treatment of t-AML.  Approximately 8 to 10 percent of all patients treated for cancer develop t-AML, and they have a median survival of 8 months.

These recent discoveries demonstrate that extraordinary research in cancers of the blood and lymph systems remains a hallmark of the world-class program at the University of Chicago.