Cancer drug pushes mutant blood stem cells to become short-lived immune cells

The biologic drug interferon-alpha can benefit patients with blood cancers called myeloproliferative neoplasms by forcing mutant blood stem cells to become shorter-lived white blood cells, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine investigators. Because the broad activity of interferon-alpha can induce significant side effects, developing more focused strategies based on these mechanistic findings could meet an important need in cancer therapy.

≈