Leukaemia

Leukaemia, cancer of the blood cells, is usually divided into two main groups: acute and chronic leukaemia. In turn theyare divided into myeloid and lymphocytic leukaemia. In Sweden, around 1,000 new cases of these malignancies are detected each year.

The symptoms of leukaemia are primarily caused by a shortage of normal blood cells. The wast number of leukaemia cells displace the normal formation of blood cells in the bone marrow.
In chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) an excess of white blood cells, the so calledB-lymphocytes arises, which accumulates in the blood, the lymph nodes, bone marrow, and the spleen. Researchers at LiU are investigating why these cells escape the natural process called programmed cell death (apoptosis), as an example. A long-term goal is better therapy directedsolely towards the malignant cells.

 Areas of Research

• Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) and B-Cell Biology Research Team (Link to Anders Rosén¿s site)
• Importance of N-CoR for myeloid cell differentiation and for the pathogenesis of leukemia (Link to Mats Söderström¿s site)