27 Years of Laboratory and Clinical Research

Our Achievements

Research is the key to making progress towards an achievable cure for all patients with leukaemia whilst keeping side effects to a minimum. Leukaemia Busters has a 27 year unbroken history of funding high quality research that has led to a number of important discoveries that will likely benefit patients in the near future. Here are some of the important milestone achievements made by scientists funded by Leukaemia Busters over the years:

• Laboratory based research showing that mixtures of different antibodies perform better than single antibodies at killing leukaemia cells.
• Research showing how the patient’s own immune system cooperates with antibody-based treatments to kill unwanted leukaemia cells that more efficiently.
• The development, in the Simon Flavell Leukaemia Research laboratories, of several different antibody-based drugs two of which have been successfully tested in clinical trials in human patients.
• The conduct of the UK’s first clinical trial with an antibody-based drug in children with relapsed leukaemia.
• Ongoing laboratory research which aims to significantly improve the way in which antibody-based drugs work in the patient allowing the use of very low doses and subsequent minimal side effects.
• The development of new genetically engineered antibody-based drugs for clinical trial that incorporate their research findings.