Fw: CMR patients no longer produce protein needed for Ph+ Cells

[Guest guest]

Found this while cleaning out my files before I leave. More evidence on

regression while on Gleevec and patients choosing to go off the drugs if they

reached CMR for at least 2 years. French patients were used as models and

thanks to them for their risk taking. Some have such severe side effects, they

find it worth the risk and we wish them all well and laughing at us at the end

of the trial period. Nothing but the best for these warriors. We are all risk

takers, with every pill we take and every injection of poison, but the choices

are few, so we endure and move on the best we know how. God bless you all. Will

be thinking of you every day while I am away and hope I will be getting emails

soon.

October 20, 2010...........

" .... an interim analysis of a small French clinical study published in the

Lancet Oncology journal found certain CML patients were able to survive without

relapse for up to two years after ending therapy.

" Medical experts have been interested in investigating the idea of stopping

treatment, rather than continuing indefinitely as is current standard practice,

following evidence of diminishing rates of progression in certain patients. The

French study found that of 69 patients who had done well on Gleevec for at least

two years and then stopped taking it, 41 percent remained in complete molecular

remission (CMR) after one year and 38 percent were clear for up to two years.

" Patients in molecular remission no longer produce an abnormal protein

responsible for too many white blood cells being made in the bone marrow, which

results in leukemia. Sustained deep molecular remission, as we have used as an

entry criteria for this trial, is not a frequent outcome of imatinib treatment, "

Francois-Xavier Mahon of Universite Victor Segalen Bordeaux and colleagues

reported. Commenting on the findings, Valent of the Medical University of

Vienna said the results showed there was now hope for a drug-induced cure in

CML, although questions remained as to whether most patients could be cured and

what drugs or combinations of drugs were needed. "

http://tinyurl.com/283837m

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FYI,

Lottie Duthu