Lucas Ferrari de Andrade, PhD, CLIP Investigator Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a blood cancer that kills thousands of American patients every year. The human body has a mechanism of immunity against cancers, and this immunity is key for the therapeutic efficacy of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). However, HSCT may cause a lethal immune-related toxicity called graft-versus-host disease and matched donors are not always available. Dr. Ferrari de Andrade’s goal is to develop a treatment that harnesses the anti-leukemia immunity without causing lethal toxicity, thus serving as an alternative to transplantation. In previous studies, his lab developed a drug that promotes immunity against cancer cells while sparing healthy cells, and observed intriguing preliminary data that the drug inhibits leukemia in two mouse AML models. Additionally, clinically relevant data regarding another drug, which is approved by the FDA for cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and has been tested in clinical trials for acute myeloid leukemia, is mechanistically associated with his new drug. For this reason, he proposes to test the hypothesis that combining these two drugs promotes the immunity against human AML. If successful, this research will help to develop a clinically relevant means to stimulate anti-leukemia immunity. He envisions that this research will help to support the transition to clinical phases by generating evidence-based rationale about the therapeutic activity of the new drug combination. Projects and Grants A new NK cell-based immunotherapy for acute myeloid leukemia Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | Leukemia | 2021
