The study of the Amsterdam UMC research group of Marcel Spaargaren and Steven Pals established that the SRC-family tyrosine kinase hematopoietic cell kinase (HCK) is aberrantly expressed in MCL, and that high expression of HCK is associated with inferior prognosis of MCL patients. Furthermore, the data demonstrate that HCK plays a critical role in proliferation and survival of MCL cells as well as in retention of the malignant cells in the growth- and survival-supporting lymphoid organ microenvironment, thereby contributing to lymphomagenesis.
Combined with the restricted expression of HCK in hematopoietic cells, enhancing the likelihood of clinical safety, these results provide a strong rationale for clinical studies exploring the efficacy of targeted therapy with HCK inhibitors for the treatment of lymphoma patients.
Read the full article ‘Identification of the SRC-family tyrosine kinase HCK as a therapeutic target in mantle cell lymphoma’ in Leukemia
People involved:
All authors, i.e., Hildo Lantermans, Marthe Minderman, Annemieke Kuil, Marie Jose Kersten, Steven Pals and Marcel Spaargaren, are affiliated with Cancer Center Amsterdam (Amsterdam UMC).
This research is supported by grants from Lymph&Co, the IWMF, and the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF).