Approach enlists immune system to fight leukemia

[Guest guest]

I think you all will find this interesting. They are enlisting the aid of

mathematics in researching a new vaccine. I went to 2 links to trace this

information to see if they are linked and it seems they are - with 2 different

scientists working from 2 different labs.

(Reuters) - Leukemia patients may be able to avoid developing resistance to the

drug Gleevec through a mathematical formula that predicts when they should

receive an immune-boosting vaccine, researchers said on Thursday. The approach,

which marries math and medicine, may help extend the effectiveness of the drug

and may even help cure some patients, they said. " The hope really is to get

patients off Gleevec ultimately, " said Dr. Lee of Stanford University

School of Medicine, a leukemia specialist who worked on the study. " It's very

very early days, but that is the hope. "

http://www.caring4cancer.com/go/cml/news?NewsItemId=20080620elin022.xml

Together with Lee (Hematology, Stanford University) and Kim

(University of Utah) we have been working on combining new experimental data and

mathematical models to develop new methods for treating leukemia patients. The

type of leukmia that we have extensively studied is chronic myelogenous leukemia

(CML). Our research emphasizes the role of the immune system in the progression

of the disease. By now it is known that most patients have an anti-leukemia

immune response. It remains a mystery as of why this immune response is

incapable of providing a sufficient response to the disease. They propose

vaccinating CML patients using their own blood in order to boost their

anti-leukemia immune response. Using mathematical models they showed that the

key issue is to time the cancer vaccine based on the dynamics of the immune

response of the individual patient. A vaccination that is provided to early or

too late in the process (i.e. after diagnosis and the initiation of

drug-therapy) will have no noticeable effect. Calculations suggest that such a

procedure may ultimately be used to cure the disease. The work assumes that

patients are treated with Gleevec (imatinib) starting from the diagnosis of the

disease. A timed vaccine may allow them to stop the drug therapy.

http://www.math.umd.edu/~dlevy/leukemia_research.html

Based on these findings, I found a conclusion which you will also find

interesting.

http://www.math.umd.edu/~dlevy/abstracts_of_papers/a_pde_model_for_imatinib-tr.h\

tml

Here is an introduction Doron Levy, a name I'm sure we will be hearing more

about. http://www.math.umd.edu/~dlevy/ I know this seems long, but each

article led me to another and I thought they were all worthy of reading. I feel

they must be on to something, because of the number of journals they have been

published in. Anyway, when you finish reading, you might want to open up a

discussion on the subject and perhaps someone else can find more information

than I posted.

Blessings,

Lottie

[Guest guest]

Hi Lottie,thank you so much for all theses articles that you find

they are all very interesting and the give us so much hope you really

know so much more than some Docs. Thanks again and Happy belated

Birthday{sorry i missed it iv'e been busy with my daughters wedding

and i have slacked of on reading all the posts,but i'm back now].Lot

of hugs

Esther

In , " Lottie Duthu " <lotajam@...> wrote:

>

> I think you all will find this interesting. They are enlisting

the aid of mathematics in researching a new vaccine. I went to 2

links to trace this information to see if they are linked and it

seems they are - with 2 different scientists working from 2 different

labs.

>

> (Reuters) - Leukemia patients may be able to avoid developing

resistance to the drug Gleevec through a mathematical formula that

predicts when they should receive an immune-boosting vaccine,

researchers said on Thursday. The approach, which marries math and

medicine, may help extend the effectiveness of the drug and may even

help cure some patients, they said. " The hope really is to get

patients off Gleevec ultimately, " said Dr. Lee of Stanford

University School of Medicine, a leukemia specialist who worked on

the study. " It's very very early days, but that is the hope. "

> http://www.caring4cancer.com/go/cml/news?

NewsItemId=20080620elin022.xml

> Together with Lee (Hematology, Stanford University) and

Kim (University of Utah) we have been working on combining new

experimental data and mathematical models to develop new methods for

treating leukemia patients. The type of leukmia that we have

extensively studied is chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). Our

research emphasizes the role of the immune system in the progression

of the disease. By now it is known that most patients have an anti-

leukemia immune response. It remains a mystery as of why this immune

response is incapable of providing a sufficient response to the

disease. They propose vaccinating CML patients using their own

blood in order to boost their anti-leukemia immune response. Using

mathematical models they showed that the key issue is to time the

cancer vaccine based on the dynamics of the immune response of the

individual patient. A vaccination that is provided to early or too

late in the process (i.e. after diagnosis and the initiation of drug-

therapy) will have no noticeable effect. Calculations suggest that

such a procedure may ultimately be used to cure the disease. The

work assumes that patients are treated with Gleevec (imatinib)

starting from the diagnosis of the disease. A timed vaccine may

allow them to stop the drug therapy.

http://www.math.umd.edu/~dlevy/leukemia_research.html

>

> Based on these findings, I found a conclusion which you will

also find interesting.

http://www.math.umd.edu/~dlevy/abstracts_of_papers/a_pde_model_for_ima

tinib-tr.html

>

> Here is an introduction Doron Levy, a name I'm sure we will be

hearing more about. http://www.math.umd.edu/~dlevy/ I know this

seems long, but each article led me to another and I thought they

were all worthy of reading. I feel they must be on to something,

because of the number of journals they have been published in.

Anyway, when you finish reading, you might want to open up a

discussion on the subject and perhaps someone else can find more

information than I posted.

>

> Blessings,

>

> Lottie

>

>

>

>

>

>

>

>