LapIt SIGNED

Project "LapIt" data sheet

The following table provides information about the project.

 Partnership

Take a look of project's partnership.

Map

 Project objective

Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), a cancer of the myeloid line of blood cells, is the most common type of leukemia in adults (~350.000 new cases yearly worldwide), yet continues to have the lowest overall survival rate of all leukemias (26.9%). The disease is characterized by clonal expansion of undifferentiated myeloid precursors, leading to anomalous hematopoiesis and bone marrow failure. Current AML management still relies largely on intensive chemotherapy and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) with treatment costs up to €300k per patient. Although some AML patients respond to chemotherapy and HSCT, most patients that go into remission show disease relapse (up to and 70%). In addition, minimal advances have been made for patients unable to tolerate intensive treatment, mostly representing older patients. This presses the need for new AML treatments that are (1) more effective and (2) tolerated by all patients. In LapIt, we will further develop a novel treatment strategy for AML, based on targeting a macromolecular target that is marker of poor prognosis for AML patients with the drug Lap. Importantly, to guarantee specific uptake of Lap by AML cells and minimize side effects to healthy cells, the drug will be further developed as an antibody-drug conjugate targeting a validated receptor which is overexpressed in AML and other leukemias. As such, our drug will not only be more effective than currently used AML therapies, but will also be tolerated by patients unable to tolerate intensive treatments. With our proposed drug candidate we are able to make, for the first time, AML treatment a clinical reality for any AML patient.