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We're talking about cancer this week on Healthwatch. Leukemia is a kind of cancer that affects the blood. In one form of leukemia, chronic myelogenous leukemia, a mutated enzyme causes white blood cells to overproduce. Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that a new, experimental drug may be a hundred times more effective at treating this kind of leukemia than current drugs are.
In mice with a related disease, one dose of the new drug greatly decreased the activity of the mutant enzyme, as well as white blood cell formation. Two-thirds of the treated mice had a complete recovery from an enlarged spleen, an effect of the disease. This didn't happen with the currently used drug.
Dr. Robert Ilaria Jr., the UT Southwestern doctor who led the study, said the new drug could be used in combination with other drugs for more treatment options.
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July 2005
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