CMLSupport: UT Southwestern Medical Center Recruits STI Patients

"Everywhere I go, I'm asked if I think the universities stifle writers. My opinion is that they don't stifle enough of them."
— Flannery O'Connor

UT Southwestern Medical Center Recruits STI Patients

DALLAS, Aug. 19, 2000 — Doctors at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas are recruiting individuals with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) for a study to test a promising new drug, STI571, designed to target specifically cancerous cells while leaving normal cells unharmed.

CML is a disease in which the bone marrow becomes cancerous and produces a large number of abnormal white blood cells. About 5,800 Americans over the age of 10 are diagnosed with the disease each year. About 20 percent to 30 percent die within two years of diagnosis, and about 25 percent die each year after that. Currently, the only chance for a cure is bone marrow transplantation, although the drug interferon-alpha has brought about remission.

"Previous leukemia treatments have relied on nonspecific drugs which kill not only leukemia cells but normal cells as well."

"Previous leukemia treatments have relied on nonspecific drugs which kill not only leukemia cells but normal cells as well," said Dr. Robert Collins, associate professor of internal medicine and holder of the H. Lloyd and Willye V. Skaggs Professorship in Medical Research. "Initial testing of STI571 has yielded promising results; all patients receiving a certain dose or higher have gone into complete remission. In a few patients treated with the drug, it has been impossible to find evidence of the disease, even using techniques which can detect one cancer cell out of 1 million normal cells."

Years of basic research have shown that CML is caused by a mutated protein that sends a relentless signal to the cell to divide, leading to large numbers of leukemia cells and eventually death. "STI571 has been developed to inhibit specifically the overactive protein," he said.

The current clinical trial will compare STI571 to the drug combination interferon-alpha/Ara-C, which is the standard therapy for CML patients who are not eligible for a bone marrow transplant. STI571, given as a pill, appears to have few side effects, usually only mild nausea.

To be eligible for the trial, CML patients must be in the chronic phase of the disease, be 18 to 70 years old and have received no other treatment besides the drug hydroxyurea. Patients will either receive STI571 or the combination of interferon-alpha and Ara-C. Patients who cannot tolerate or do not respond to one drug will be switched to the other.

For more information, please contact Collins at (214) 648-5437.

Source: The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas

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