A new way to destroy blood cancer cells
2 min read 03 September 2025
Peter Mac researcher Dr Alexander Lewis is exploring news way to treat blood cancers and he’s made a discovery that could be truly ground-breaking.
He has uncovered a way to cut off the vital components that blood cancer cells rely on to live and thrive.
This holds huge potential to save lives, especially in cases of aggressive cancers like acute myeloid leukaemia (AML), where treatments can often stop working with time.
Because of the generosity of people who give to cancer research, Dr Lewis and his team are now working to move this breakthrough closer to becoming a viable treatment.
Dr Alexander Lewis has made a ground-breaking discovery that could change the future for people with blood cancer.
The best way to help keep vital research like this moving forward is to donate to Peter Mac.
Cutting off cancer’s energy source
Blood cancer cells – especially AML cells – rely on a molecule called haem to fuel their growth.
Haem is essential to how cells create energy. Dr Lewis and his team discovered that when haem is blocked, cancer cells lose their power source – and die.
And remarkably, they die in a completely new way.
Instead of the typical pathways cancer drugs target, these cells undergo a rare process called cuproptosis – a form of cell death triggered by copper.
“This is a completely different way to destroy cancer cells. We’ve never seen them die like this before.” – Dr Alexander Lewis.
This early breakthrough could lead to treatments that work when others don’t.
Many blood cancers become resistant to treatments like chemotherapy. They adapt, change, and find ways to survive – often returning after treatment has ended.
But in Dr Lewis’s study, even the most stubborn cancer cells – the ones that survive chemotherapy and lead to relapse – were vulnerable once haem was blocked.
These early results are giving researchers a completely new path forward. And could lead to a future where fewer people face relapse.
Help bring discoveries to life
This research is still in its early stages. But its potential is life-changing.
Peter Mac’s unique model – where researchers and clinicians work side by side – helps move discoveries like this from lab to trial faster.
But support from kind people like you is crucial to take this research from a discovery to patients’ bedsides. Without sufficient funds, research like this could be delayed or abandoned altogether.
When you give to research, you help drive progress. You help ground-breaking discoveries like this take the next step – from possibility to treatment.
Will you please give a gift to make sure life-saving research like this can continue, and save lives?