Secondary acute myeloid leukemia, a lethal disease: Ground-breaking research supported by Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation-Global

With the support of The Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation-Global, the EORTC is studying secondary acute myeloid leukemia (s-AML), a serious complication which may develop in people who survived an earlier cancer. The goal is to discover the molecular character of this fatal disease and thus open the way to the development of the first ever treatments, so that patients in the future will suffer less and live longer.

The first phase of the project was dedicated to the establishment of a large clinical data base on patients with s-AML (s-AML registry) who participated in 15 past clinical trials which were led by EORTC’s Leukemia Group of specialist scientists and doctors from across Europe. The results of the expert analysis of these patients were presented orally by EORTC at the Annual Congress of the American Society of Hematology held in New Orleans in December 2013.

With the establishment of the s-AML registry, high quality clinical and pathological data of s-AML patients have been centralized. This data collection gives us the unique opportunity to establish a platform that brings a large amount of clinical patient data together with the future biobank of centralized patients’ samples.

The second phase of the project is now being launched. It will consist of an in-depth biological investigation of the disease in EORTC’s laboratories in collaboration with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. The project will provide a great opportunity to better understand the molecular nature of s-AML and to identify potential molecular targets for new treatments designed to improve the outcome of patients with s-AML. Alwaleed Bin Talal Foundation’s commitment without boundaries has made this important project possible. Patients in the future will benefit from this act of philanthropy.

Sir Christopher Mallaby
Chair of the EORTC Charitable Trust

Safaa Ramadan MD
EORTC Clinical Research Physician

Frederic Baron, MD
Chairman of the EORTC- Leukemia Group