Guest guest Posted February 8, 2007 Report Share Posted February 8, 2007 My 2 cents on this as my feahters got ruffled really fast is that Gleevec is a protein-tyrosive Kinase inhibitor, a antineoplastic medication (medication that people take to treat cancer). Anyone who looks at the small print of what this drug does in the body can see that it works as a " chemo " drug. It targets that bad cells, stop the cells of signaling the change and allows keep the chromosomes from translocating. I truly feel as do my doctors who are CML specialists that it is an oral chemotherapy. Their words not mine. I hear what you are saying about the sun. Too little is a bad thing and can make people depressed. I think since we know what this drug does to our body and the changes it makes to our skin, hair, pigmentation, etc, we have to take the needed precautions when going out in it. I think that we would all agree that we are a little more sensative to it now then before Gleevec. If you aren't one of those people, consider yourself one of the lucky ones. Just wanted to throw in my 2 cents. Take care all- Jen S. RN [ ] Re: Gleevec and Skin Thanks for the links Tracey. My point was that some sun exposure is a good thing and like any good thing, too much can be bad. Especially when it causes damage to the skin. To avoid all sun at all times is a little overboard in my book. Does Gleevec actually target the cell? I thought it inhibited a protein that triggers the development of leukemic cells. How I've always understood it was... in simple terms... Gleevec " rewires " the mechanism in our body (altered by mutation) that causes the hyper development of immature white blood cells. Gleevec blocks the signal sent out that cause the cells to grow out of control. So rather than killing cells, it stops additional " out of control " cells from developing. Soon these useless cells die off naturally as they conclude their life cycle and are replaced by normal, mature cells that follow a normal life cycle and rate of division. This is how I've understood Gleevec. > > > Hi there, > > > > > > Does anyone have the same experience with me? I am on 400mg > Gleevec > > > since last September. I notice my skin got lighter in color. My > > > hands and my face is very noticeable. Somehow, this gives me a > pale > > > look. Maybe I did not expose to much sun in winter? > > > > > > Another thing with my skin is it gets thinner. Just use my nail > to > > > scratch on my itchy spot, it leaves red scratch marks behind. I > have > > > to be very careful not to get cut and bruises. > > > > > > It is hidden side effects of Gleevec? Skin lightening and > > > thinning......lol > > > > > > Siu > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > --------------------------------- > > > Everyone is raving about the all-new beta. > > > > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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