The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center SPORE in Leukemia - OVERALL ABSTRACT Despite recent advances in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), the majority of AML patients relapse following treatment and the overall five-year survival rate for adults with AML remains 25-29%. Thus, an urgent need to improve therapy for AML patients remains. The MSK SPORE in Leukemia will leverage collective efforts to develop effective targeted therapies and immunotherapeutic approaches for several recurrent molecular subtypes of AML, including some which lack therapeutic options entirely. The overall translational aims of the MSK SPORE in Leukemia are to 1) interrogate genetic and molecular pathways required for AML initiation and maintenance; 2) develop novel targeted therapies and immunotherapeutic approaches for AML based on recurrent genomic alterations and leukemia stem-cell (LSC) specific markers; and 3) identify and validate the mechanism of action, therapeutic efficacy, and predictors of response/resistance of mechanism-based therapies for AML patients. To pursue these aims, we have assembled a multidisciplinary team with complementary expertise in the clinical management of AML, cancer genetics, cancer epigenetics, functional genomics, molecular pathology, biostatistics, computational biology, and multiplatform data integration. We will pursue these aims through four projects, each addressing a different unmet need in the clinical management of AML. Project 1 will elucidate genetic and epigenetic mechanisms of IDH inhibitor therapeutic resistance and perform a clinical trial exploring the efficacy and safety of combining the FLT3 inhibitor gilteritinib with mutant selective IDH1/2 inhibitors for FLT3/IDH-mutant AML. Project 2 will characterize the clinical, molecular, and biological features of complex karyotype (CK) AML, for which there is no treatment, and validate a novel approach to targeting CK AML via inhibition of the metabolic enzyme oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH). Project 3 will evaluate a novel therapeutic approach for targeting common, poor prognosis spliceosomal-mutant AML subtypes via inhibition of protein arginine methyltransferases in preclinical models and a phase I/II clinical trial. Project 4 will determine the safety and efficacy of a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell approach targeting a leukemia stem cell-specific antigen while sparing normal hematopoietic stem cells, specifically, a fully humanized CD371 targeting CAR T cell platform bolstered by constitutive IL-18 secretion. All projects will be supported by the Biospecimen, Biostatistics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics Shared Resource Cores, which will assist with the preparation and analysis of human tissues and genomic, immune, and clinical data, and an Administrative Core to ensure project integration. Finally, pilot projects in the Developmental Research Program and career mentorship via the Career Enhancement Program are fully integrated into the SPORE to ensure that a future generation of researchers is prepared to further advance our long-term objectives of enhancing therapy, reducing the morbidity of treatments, and ultimately eliminating this disease as a cause of premature death
