Dr Pablo Menéndez, scientific director at the Clinic-UB Campus from the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research institute, has just published an article in the prestigious magazine Leukemia,where he explains how the team has identified the role ofthe DLL4 protein in blood cell production, which is a step forward in finding out what goes wrong in the cases in which pro-B acute lymphoblastic leukaemia MLL-AF4 +, which the team is studying, is developed.

The Josep Carreras Foundation will contribute €1,000,000 to Hospital Clinic to renovate and enlarge the Haemato-oncologic Clinical Trial Unit at Hospital Clinic in Barcelona.

This agreement opens the door to collaborations between scientists at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute and the doctors and clinical researchers from Hospital Clinic in Barcelona carrying outclinical, translational and basic research.

“Currently none of the existing treatment prevents the transformation to acute myeloid leukaemia and only delays the progression of the disease. The heterogeneity of MDS is the main barrier to the development of specific treatments”.

This month of March a new research team has joined the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC). It is Dr Mayka Sánchez’s team, focused on the study of iron metabolism.

A research team at the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute (IJC) has studied the two groups of patients (ones HIV positive and the others HIV free) who received the same combined chemotherapy for B-cell aggressive lymphoma. The results of this study have just been published in the international magazine AIDS. 

• It is an encouraging figure that increases the possibilities of finding an unrelated donor for any patient who needs it, wherever he or she lives.

• In spite of this rise, both the ONT and the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation encourage citizens to become marrow donors.

• Spain already has more than (175.791) donors, a figure that has grown more than 70% over the last two years, thanks to the National Marrow Plan. Also, 60,000 cord blood units are stored in our country. 

• According to ONT-REDMO data, 5,796 people have decided to become bone marrow donors since the beginning of the year.

• Throughout 2014, ONT-REDMO began 855 compatible donor searches. Also, 80 Spanish bone marrow donors carried out their donations.

• Each year, around 5,000 new cases of leukaemia are diagnosed, many of which need a bone marrow transplant.