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_{March 6, 2026}

Researchers drill down on genetics to guide treatment for leukemia patients

Cancer researchers are making strides in efforts to use genetic profiling to develop a more precise understanding of the response to treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a rare but aggressive blood cancer.

In the most recent of a series of four studies featured in Bone Marrow Transplantation, researchers have found that a highly sensitive DNA-based test can help doctors predict which patients with AML are most likely to relapse.

AML is an aggressive blood cancer, and about 30 percent of adults with the disease have a mutation in a gene called NPM1. Many of these patients undergo an allogeneic stem cell transplant — a procedure that replaces diseased bone marrow with healthy donor cells — but relapse remains a major concern.

The research team analyzed blood samples from 190 patients with AML in clinical remission. The samples, stored in a national biobank of those who had received transplants between 2013 and 2019, were tested using a next-generation DNA sequencing test that detects tiny traces of persistent NPM1 mutation.