Adult acute myelogenous leukemia—also known as acute myeloid leukemia (AML)—is a blood cancer in which the bone marrow makes a large number of abnormal blood cells.
About 20,000 new AML cases are diagnosed each year in the U.S., with a five‑year survival rate of about 29%. In 2022, nearly 12,000 people died from AML. Most patients—many over age 60—relapse after treatment. Blood stem cell transplant can be curative, but many older patients do not qualify, leaving a major unmet medical need.
That’s why CIRM awarded $6 million to Dr. Karin Gaensler at UCSF to develop a safe, effective vaccine for AML that improves relapse‑free survival.
Dr. Gaensler’s team will engineer the patient’s blood stem cells to boost leukemia‑specific immune activity and then return the engineered cells to target and kill residual leukemia stem cells. This approach may offer long‑term benefit because it targets both AML blasts and leukemia stem cells, which often drive relapse.
This award continues a previous CIRM grant that supports vaccine manufacturing and late‑stage testing needed for an FDA application to begin a clinical trial.
Watch Lineage VAC2 in this space. Allogenic so larger reach. Godspeed
My dad died of AML in 2009. What’s the theory on administering treatment at night time when the body is essentially in repair mode due to the natural circadian rhythm effect? I’m no scientist but it’s something that’s always been on my mind. For example, what’s the rate of death for those with AML from the hours of 8 PM – 5 AM (excluding life support to prolong life briefly for family members to say goodbye)? How much research has been done on this type of hypothesis? P.S. Any advancement is wonderful and I’m grateful others and their families have been able to get treatment that has progressed since my dad was diagnosed in 2009.