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What the heck is CML?
Chronic myelogenous leukemia (pronounced my-ah-lah-jeh-nes) is a cancer of the bone marrow. It's also known as chronic myeloid leukemia and chronic granulocytic leukemia.
When you have CML, your body's marrow — the "stuff" inside your bones — sort of goes haywire and produces too many white blood cells, causing a variety of complications. Unlike other cancers, CML is not a solid tumor, and thus it cannot be surgically removed.
While medications, including chemotherapy, can help stabilize you for several years, the only known potential cure is a bone marrow transplant, a grueling procedure that often invokes the old cliche' that the cure is worse than the disease.
Only about 5,000 Americans are diagnosed with CML each year. About 2,300 die from it annually.
But new treatments and potential cures are on the horizon. Most notable is imatinib mesylate, trade name Gleevec (pronounced glee-veck). It is known as Glivec outside of the United States, and was previously known as STI571. It's manufactured by Novartis.
Gleevec, which was approved for the U.S. prescription drug market in May 2001, after just three years in clinical trials, is sometimes referred to in the media as a "magic bullet" because it is thought to target only the enzymes in your body that allow cancerous cells to grow, not your normal healthy cells.
However, even the leading CML experts say it's too early to tell yet whether Gleevec will live up to the reputation it's rapidly acquiring. And unfortunately, results on Gleevec are not encouraging for people with advanced stages of CML, as relapse is a major threat. Other treatments are also being studied, including combining Gleevec with the traditional interferon treatment and arsenic trioxide, plus the latest — vaccines.
Check out the Article Archives and the NewsBytes Archives for information about other CML and leukemia treatment advances and research.
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Relay For Life
We walked, we cried, we celebrated.
(Click on the photo to see even more photos)
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Gleevec News Articles
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News Articles About Gleevec
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New:
Powerful Anti-Cancer Drug Emerges From Basic Biology
Patient Advocate Foundation
Glee For Gleevec
Access Excellence, June 21, 2001
Gleevec's Glory Days
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Dec. 2001
New Drug Dissolves Stomach Tumors; Also Being Tried In Brain, Lung, And Other Cancers
Harvard University Gazette, May 14, 2001
Previous:
Read Dr. Brian Druker's comments about the development of resistance to Gleevec.
Talk of the Nation, National Public Radio, June 1, 2001
Forbes:
"Reviving Novartis"
At a frenetic factory outside the
village of Ringaskiddy, Ireland, workers have spent the past year
laboring in 12-hour shifts around the clock, seven days a week,
turning out 10 tonnes of a plain-looking white powder with
extraordinary qualities.
Associated
Press: "Glivec, Pill Developed By OHSU Doctor, Appears To Erase
Leukemia"
An experimental pill co-developed by an
Oregon Health Sciences University doctor is having excellent
results treating an often fatal blood cancer.
Associated
Press: "Researchers: New drug Glivec Successfully Treats
Leukemia"
A treatment for leukemia that patients say
has fewer side effects than aspirin is surprising doctors at the
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center with its success.
USA
Today: "Leukemia Drug Glivec Clears Cancer In Trial"
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.
Reuters:
"New Pill Eliminated Leukemia In 30 PCT Of Patients"
Nearly 30 percent of patients with a common form of leukemia
have no traces of the disease after being treated with an
experimental pill made by Novartis AG , researchers said.
CBS
News: "Astounding Leukemia Breakthrough"
A promising,
experimental pill is now being tested internationally in thousands
of patients with an often-fatal form of leukemia. The pill appears
remarkably effective in extending life, even in patients with
end-stage disease.
Global
Change: "STI571 Cancer Cure?"
What is the truth about
STI571? Does STI571 cure cancer? STI571 side effects. Summary of
latest research and news on STI571 by Dr Patrick Dixon MA MBBS.
Please not that STI571 is often mispelled as ST1571, especially by
those looking on the net.
Rockefeller
University: "Why Experimental Leukemia Drug, STI-571, Is
Effective"
Research from the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute at The Rockefeller University, the Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the State University of New York
at Stony Brook shows how the experimental drug STI-571 selectively
blocks a mutant enzyme that causes a rare form of leukemia without
harming its molecular cousins.
ABC
News: "The Miracle Pill"
He was told he had a type of
leukemia known as chronic mylogenous leukemia, or CML. And the
prognosis was not good — as with most CML patients, the disease
was likely to kill him in a few years.
ABC
News: "The Miracle Pill: Tireless Researcher Discusses Leukemia
Treatment"
Dr. Brian Druker's leukemia pill has been
called a medical breakthrough. The pill, a treatment for chronic
myelogenous leukemia, or CML, had an astounding 100 percent
success rate in its first clinical trial.
ABC
News: "Leukemia Breakthrough?"
A study being presented
to the American Society of Hematology this weekend shows
remarkable, preliminary results in the treatment of a common form
of leukemia.
The
Scientist: "A Cancer Drug With Fan Mail"
"I feel so
good that sometimes I forget I have leukemia," writes Gay Bratton
of her experience with STI571, Novartis Pharma's experimental drug
for treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Bratton, a
high school math teacher and grandmother, started taking STI571 at
Houston's M.D. Anderson Cancer Center last December as a
participant in a Phase I trial of the drug. With STI571, her white
blood cell counts are under control and her anemia is gone, giving
her the energy to function normally."
Oncology.com:
"Expanded Role Seen For Breakthrough Leukemia Drug "
The chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) drug that startled doctors
last year after sending all of its first takers into speedy
remission continues to show promise as its use is expanded to
treating other stages and forms of leukemia, and possibly to other
types of cancer.
Oncology.com:
"Reason For Resistance To Leukemia Drug Uncovered"
Italian researchers have tracked down one reason certain cases
of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) appear to be resistant to
STI571, the potent anti-CML drug that is being tested in clinical
trials. Fortunately, the same research may also have uncovered a
way to overcome that resistance.
"STI Results
Presented Before AACR"
A novel approach in treating
chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) was presented at the 91st
Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research
(AACR), where results from a phase I study of STI571 produced
complete responses in CML patients resistant to interferon.
April 1, 2000, American Association of Cancer Research
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