A Gene, and Treatment Success

Researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have found that a mutation in the gene CREBBP could be associated with treatment success in leukemia patients. CREBBP plays an important role in the normal development of blood cells, St. Jude's says. In the study, published in Nature, the researchers found that 18.3 percent of the 71 relapsed leukemia patients they studied carried mutations in CREBBP, compared to only one relapse in the 270 leukemia patients who did not carry the alteration. The mutation is also associated with changes in regulatory regions of the gene that affect cell function, and could be responsible for cancer cells respond to steroid treatments, St. Jude's says.