Breakthrough into Rare Childhood Cancer – Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH)

“Notch-dependent cooperativity between myeloid lineages promotes Langerhans cell histiocytosis pathology,”

We thank the patients and their families for generous participation and funds for this project.

Listen and read here as Prof Collin talks about this amazing piece of Research news.

An International team of Researchers including researchers from Newcastle, Dr Paul Milne and Prof Matthew Collin have made progress in understanding how the childhood cancer Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis (LCH) damages tissue in the body. There are about 200 cases of LCH a year in the UK and 10% of them are life-threatening, mostly in very young infants.

When asked “What does this mean in layman’s terms?” Prof. Collin responded:

“This work represents an important advance in understanding how the lesions of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis develop. The cells of the cancer originate in the bone marrow but make lots of destructive lesions in the bone, skin, brain, lungs and blood forming organs. In collaboration with a large team from France, Singapore and Stockholm our research shows that two different white blood cells partner up to make the lesions by giving signals to one another (via a system called ’Notch’). Neither one is sufficient, but together they make a pathological partnership that causes the disease”.

When asked “What does it mean for our paediatric patients of Langerhans Cell Histiocytosis?”

Prof. Collin responded:          

“We are always searching for new targets to develop drugs against. This partnership between the cancer cells might represent a new ‘Achilles heel’ that we can aim for and encourage lesions to resolve and heal, decreasing the ill effects of the condition”.