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Scientists in Japan have discovered a new approach that they believe could eventually help reduce the risk of relapse in chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML). In most CML patients their cancer carries the fusion oncogene BCR-ABL1, an abnormal tyrosine kinase enzyme, which drives the cancer growth and causes CML stem cells to produce leukaemia cells. Recent drugs called tyrosine kinase inhibitors are effective at inhibiting the growth of CML cells and halting the production of leukaemia cells. But as the researchers explain in Nature Communications recently, “Although the advent of tyrosine kinase inhibitors has dramatically improved the prognoses of CML patients, CML stem cells are untouched by tyrosine kinase inhibito...