Gleevec,
The Targeted Cancer Pill, Delivers More Good News To
Patients
Gleevec, the targeted cancer pill that has saved more
than 100,000 lives, now is saving more children with a
dire leukemia, as well as preventing disease
progression with long term use in adults with chronic
myeloid leukemia.
“Data
at this weekend’s meeting continues to show how much
Gleevec has completely changed the outlook for so
many, many patients facing cancer,” said Brian
Druker, M.D., director of the OHSU Cancer
Institute.
At the
plenary session of the annual meeting of the American
Society of Hematology researchers delivered news that
Gleevec has been shown to improve outcomes for
children with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute
lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph+ ALL).
Ph+ ALL
is the childhood leukemia with the worst prognosis and
the Children’s Oncology Group study shows that adding
Gleevec to the treatment almost completely reverses
this poor prognosis. The Children’s Oncology Group is
a worldwide clinical trial cooperative supported by
the National Cancer Institute, a branch of the
National Institutes of Health.
Also
released at the conference is new data from the
largest clinical trial in Philadelphia
chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)
that showed Gleevec, with long-term use, can prevent
progression to advanced stages of the disease.
Six-year
results of the International Randomized Interferon
versus STI571 (IRIS) study for which Druker served as
principal investigator, demonstrated that continuous
treatment with Gleevec produced a declining rate of
relapse over time.
The
downward trend in the risk of disease progression
while on Gleevec has continued since year two of the
study. Remarkably, between years five and six, no
patients progressed to an advanced phase of the
disease.
“The
news about Gleevec and the childhood leukemia study as
well as the six-year IRIS study that shows there is no
progression to advanced phase in CML means that more
and more patients are surviving, despite being
diagnosed with these cancers,” said Druker, JELD-WEN
Chair of Leukemia Research, Howard Hughes Medical
Institute Investigator and member of the National
Academy of Sciences. He also is a professor of
medicine (hematology and medical oncology), cell and
developmental biology, and biochemistry and molecular
biology in the OHSU School of Medicine.
Gleevec
has also been approved for the treatment of
gastrointestinal stromal tumors, pediatric CML, as
well as five additional rare cancers.
Michael
Heinrich, M.D., professor of medicine
(hematology/medical oncology) in the OHSU School of
Medicine and the Portland Veteran’s Affairs medical
Center, and a member of the OHSU Cancer Institute, has
been the principal investigator in research studies
involving GIST and Gleevec.
Source:-Oregon Health & Science University
Published on the 4th January 2008
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