Translational Research > Blood Malignancies

Liverpool has an international reputation in this area, boosted by the recent appointment of a Clinical Senior Lecturer from the MSKCC to join the existing team of three clinical Professors plus scientists and is well represented on NCRI CSGs.

In Chronic Lymphocyte Leukeamia (CLL) Protein Kinase C (PKC) and c-abl in B-cell receptor signalling have been found to be important in the selection and perpetuation of the malignant clone. In hairy cells constitutive PKC-dependent ERK activation has been identified as central to malignant cell survival and oxidant production by NOX-5 has been shown to be of importance in constitutive activation. Current work is focused on defining CLL subgroups on the basis of signalling profiles, on the control of adhesion-receptor expression in CLL and on the oncogenic origin of the constitutive signals of hairy cells.

Translational work has identified Akt and Hsp90 as worthy molecular targets for novel therapy.

The Clinical Trials Advisory and Awards Committee (CTAAC) -funded PACIFIC [RiChFlo] phase III trial will compare two different induction regimens for follicular lymphoma. Currently available biomarkers do not identify all patients with aggressive, chemoresistant disease.

To address this problem, a novel prognostic test has been developed that probes the functional integrity of the ATM-p53-p21 pathway.

The Liverpool Leukaemia Bank houses >27,000 vials of viable CLL cells obtained from >400 patients. The group also hosts the Leukaemia Research Fund-funded UK CLL Trials Biobank.

The Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia (CML) research group is investigating how TKIs are transported into and out of cells and the immune response to BCR-ABL linked to phase I/II/III trials.