Grant to fund new treatment for leukaemia

A researcher has discovered a protein that can kill leukaemia cells without affecting the body's healthy cells.

Dr Nikki Verrills, from the University of Newcastle, has been awarded a $360,000 grant to examine a potential new treatment for leukaemia patients, which she says is "urgently required".

She was given the grant for her research on the behaviour of a particular protein, known as protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A).

The protein is important as it becomes inactive in the cancerous cells of some patients with acute myeloid leukaemia.

But when the protein is activated by a particular drug it can kill leukaemia cells without affecting the body's healthy cells, her research has shown.

"The grant will enable us to understand exactly how the drug works with a view to entering clinical trials," Dr Verrills said in a statement on Thursday.

According to the Leukaemia Foundation acute myeloid leukaemia is a type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow.

The body produces too many immature white blood cells, which crowd the bone marrow, preventing it from making normal blood cells.

They can also spill out into the blood stream and circulate around the body.

Dr Verrills said the disease accounted for 30 per cent of all leukaemia diagnoses in Australia and has the lowest survival rate.

"Survival rates for patients with acute myeloid leukaemia are currently extremely poor and novel therapies are urgently required."

Dr Verrills's latest research is focused on finding new ways to stop the cell growing with the use of targeted treatments.

The grant is awarded jointly through the Cure Cancer Australia Foundation and Cancer Council NSW.

Meanwhile, Wednesday marked the beginning of Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month, which helps raise awareness of the seventh most common cause of cancer deaths in Australian women.

Ovarian cancer is very difficult to detect as it has ubiquitous symptoms such as bloating or abdominal pain.