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Dec. 5, 2000 — A powerful leukemia drug that patients say has fewer side effects
than aspirin has shown surprising success in early trials, say
researchers at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
in Houston.
"We need many, many
more studies, and patients to know exactly how powerful this drug
will be, but the early results are promising."
The drug, STI571, a treatment for chronic myelogenous
leukemia (CML), was a central topic at last weekend's meeting
of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco. M.D. Anderson
researchers reported that, in all 31 CML patients given the drug
at the center last year, the cancer went into complete remission.
This year, 550 patients with chronic CML resistant to conventional
treatment have been given the drug, and in more than 90% of the
cases, their blood was normal after six months of treatment. CML
affects about 4,500 Americans each year and is caused by a defect
in a chromosome found in bone marrow cells.
"We need many, many
more studies, and patients to know exactly how powerful this drug
will be, but the early results are promising," says Ed Benz,
president of the hematology society and president of the Harvard-affiliated
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Source: USA Today
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