Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have discovered a new target for chemotherapy that may point the way to more effective treatment of a deadly form of leukemia.

The discovery is about a molecular "signal" that regulates cell growth, helping prevent several forms of cancer. But the molecular signal also keeps the growth of healthy cells in check.

"The finding was quite unexpected," Dr. Michael Cleary, lead author of a paper published Wednesday in the online edition of Nature, said.

The molecular signal, called GSK3, has been found to enable a white blood cell cancer which accounts for five to 10 percent of child and adult leukemia cases.

"GSK3 has never been implicated in promoting cancer," Cleary, a professor of pathology and pediatrics, said. His research team found that inhibiting GSK3 combats leukemia caused by mutated genes.

"There is an intense interest in coming up with better ways to treat these patients," Cleary said.

Cleary's research team is now working to determine how GSK3 enables cancers to grow, along with searching for inhibitors that can be safely given to people with cancer.

"There will be a lot of hard work required to build better anti-GSK3 compounds, test them in preclinical models and translate them to human trials," Cleary said.

— Don Kazak