By altering donor cells, researchers may have found a way to help those cells survive immunotherapy treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

Since AML does not have tumor-specific markers, healthy cells and tissues could be damaged during treatment. Altering the cells received from a donor for bone marrow transplantation, can help with targeting cancer cells, not damaging healthy cells, and reducing some side-effects.

The study, titled “Epitope editing enables targeted immunotherapy of acute myeloid leukemia,” was conducted by researchers at the Department of Pediatric Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. It was recently published in the journal, Nature, and co-authored, Pietro Genovese, PhD, a former recipient of the Leukemia Research Foundation’s New Investigator Research Award.

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