Acute lymphocytic leukemia is common in children, while acute myelogenous leukemia is more common in adults and has a higher recurrence rate. A RIKEN group around Fumihiko ISHIKAWA has found in experiments with humanized mice (non-immune mice to which human progenitor cells with a mutation in the FLT3 gene were transplanted, leading to the onset of leukemia) that a combination therapy with RK-20449, a pyrrolo-pyrimidine inhibitor, and an inhibitor for BCL 2, a mitochondrial membrane protein involved in apoptosis, eradicated leukemic cells in these mice in about 80 % of all cases.

RIKEN news release, October 26, 2017