Chemical stem cell signature predicts treatment response for acute myeloid leukemia

February 4, 2014

(Medical Xpress) – Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University and Montefiore Medical Center have found a chemical “signature” in blood-forming stem cells that predicts whether patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) will respond to chemotherapy. The findings are based on data from nearly 700 AML patients. If validated in clinical trials, the signature would help physicians better identify which AML patients would benefit from chemotherapy and which patients have a prognosis so grave that they may be candidates for more aggressive treatments such as bone-marrow transplantation.