MYC Pathway Inhibition Leads to Dormancy in Leukemia Cells

Each year, the number of new cases for leukemia in children increases by 7%, equaling around 5 in every 100,000 children. Even though the number of deaths is decreasing each year by 2.8%, leukemia is still a major concern in children at is equals 24.3% of all new cancer cases. Survivability is measured by using the five-year survival percentage that measures the percent of individuals in remission surviving for five years. Survival rate for children aged 15 and below is 68% with 15+ being 66%. Even though the survival rate is quite high, 15 – 20% of leukemia returns which is equivalent to 600 children relapsing. The survival rate after the first relapse drops dramatically to 30-50%. A solution needs to be found in order to stop relapsing from happening.

Cancer cells are some of the fastest proliferating cells that exist and is the reason for chemotherapy drugs to target faster proliferating cells. However, with this comes side effects that lead to other faster proliferating cells to be attacked as well. With chemotherapy, most cancer cells are attacked, and most people are pushed forward into remission, apart from a small fraction of cancer cells remaining. These cells survive the initial attack from chemotherapy drugs as they enter a quiescent state giving them protection from the chemotherapy drugs. This quiescent state is a reversable state in which a cell does not divide but can begin cell division again.

The goal of this research is to investigate a possible reason for these cancer cells to enter this quiescent state and understand what specific function is used to push cells into this state. The focus was on the inhibition of the MYC gene pathway which is used as a regulator gene and protooncogene that are used to encode transcription factors.