Helton’s abstract wins ASH award

Dr. Heather Helton, a pediatric oncology fellow in the Clinical Research Division, won a $500 Abstract Achievement Award from the American Society of Hematology. She will present her work as a trainee abstract presenter at the ASH’s annual meeting in Atlanta, Dec. 8-11.

Helton, who works with Fred Hutch’s Dr. Soheil Meshinchi, studies pediatric acute myeloid leukemia. Her research aims to characterize the scope of mutations in a gene, ETV6, in children with AML. Helton and colleagues found patients with ETV6 mutations were more likely to have poor outcomes. She hopes to use the mutations as a marker at diagnosis to predetermine therapies most likely to succeed.