The discovery of 25 different spots on leukemia cells by Japanese researchers means each of them could be used for designing a new drug to fight the disease.

Scientist publishing their study in Science Translational Medicine said 25 different stretches of DNA especially active in the leukemia cells had been found, with each one having the potential to be targeted by a new drug.

Lead researcher Fumihiko Ishikawa from the RIKEN Research Centre for Allergy & Immunology, Yokohama explains that developing drugs against these molecules makes it possible to eliminate leukemia stem cells, which conventional anti-cancer drugs are not able to kill.

For the study, the researchers compared leukemia stem cells of 61 patients with blood stem cells of healthy adults. Leukemia stem cells are cancer cells, which giving birth to new tumour cells help the spread of cancer in the body.

According to Ishikawa, many anti-cancer drugs are useful in helping leukemia patients to go into remission, however, in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) many undergo relapse and die, eventually.

The identification of leukemia stem cells responsible for relapse may help in discovering how to overcome relapse in AML patients."

In AML, there is a rapid growth of abnormal white blood cells unable to fight infections, making patients susceptible to infections, including the loss of red blood cells that carry oxygen to all cells in the body, causing the patient to feel fatigued, short of breath and to die, eventually.

Novartis’ Gleevec and AstraZeneca’s Iressa are some anti-cancer drugs that have helped save the lives of many cancer patients.

However, there are dozens of leukemia types, with doctors finding many more different sub-types, which all require their own tailored treatment, as even targeted drugs stop working due to tumour mutations.

While, most of the young and 50% of the elderly AML patients are cured, the overall survival rate remains low due to relapse, with only 20% of AML patients surviving five years after the first diagnosis.