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PORTLAND, OREGON, Dec. 3, 2000 — An experimental pill co-developed by an Oregon Health Sciences University
doctor is having excellent results treating an often fatal blood cancer.
Chronic myelogenous leukemia is characterized by an excessive growth of
white blood cells caused by a chromosomal defect that produces a damaging
enzyme. The pill, Glivec, targets the enzyme to halt progression of the
disease.
The potential significance of the research extends beyond leukemia because
the compound targets only abnormal cells, leaving healthy cells undamaged.
One of the goals of cancer research is to find treatments that differentiate
between cancer cells and normal cells so that targeting can be more
accurate, avoiding side effects linked with chemotherapy.
"It's like a miracle."
"That's exactly what we have seen in these patients," said Dr. Brian Druker,
who developed the pill in conjuction with Norvartis Oncology.
One of Druker's patients is Peter Neuert, of Canada. Doctors in his hometown
of Oakville, Ontario, diagnosed his leukemia seven years ago. He did well on
conventional treatment until a year ago, when the medicines stopped working.
In February, he was in an Oakville hospital, preparing to go home and die.
Then his wife, Christine, saw Druker discussing the pill on ABC's "20/20."
The next morning she contacted OHSU and got her husband into the study.
Today, the retired carpenter shows no signs of leukemia.
"It's like a miracle," said Peter Neuert, 68.
Neuert is one of the 1,025 patients in studies Druker and his colleagues are
discussing through Tuesday at the American Society of Hematology's annual
meeting in San Francisco.
Neuert started using the pill in March, after arriving at OHSU in a
wheelchair.
"Ten days later, his blood count was back in the normal range. It was
absolutely amazing," Christine Neuert said. "A month later, when we came
back to the hospital for a checkup, he was walking and they didn't recognize
him, it was such a dramatic difference."
Typical treatment for CML is a bone marrow transplant, if the patient can
find a suitable donor and is able to withstand the transplantation process,
and daily injections of interferon, a natural product made by the body to
fight infection.
Until the experimental leukemia pill came along, patients who could not have
a transplant or who failed interferon treatment faced a death sentence. In
the study, some of those patients who had a life expectancy of two to three
months have survived for at least a year, Druker said.
Researchers found that most patients' blood cell counts became normal with
daily use of the pill. Most notable, however, was that after a year of use
no sign of CML was found in 28 percent of 532 chronic patients, 15 percent
of 233 patients with accelerated disease, and 6 percent of 260 patients in
the terminal crisis stage group.
"As hard as it is to imagine, these results from these larger studies are
even more astounding than our initial studies," Druker said.
Clinical trials of the leukemia pill are being conducted in six countries.
Novartis Oncology plans to apply for U.S. Food and Drug Administration
approval early next year.
Source: The Associated Press
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