Knight Cancer Pilot Project Awardee: William Fleming, M.D., Ph.D.
William Fleming, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Oregon Stem Cell Center
Knight Cancer Institute
Title: "Targeting interactions between AML and the microenvironment to enhance kinase inhibitor therapy"
Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a heterogeneous disease with a variable response to therapy.
Although the majority of AML patients achieve a complete remission following induction
chemotherapy, most of these patients will relapse due to the re-growth of therapy resistant
leukemia stem cells. Recently, we have found that the cells that surround the AML cells, also
known as the microenvironment, can promote the leukemia survival. We propose to identify
factors elaborated by the microenvironment that enhance leukemia cell survival and to identify
patient-specific therapeutic targets.
