MONDAY, Feb. 14, 2005 (HealthDay News) -- The drug Gleevec has proven a lifesaver for people with a blood cancer called chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). However, a growing number of CML patients have cancers resistant to the medication.
Now, an experimental drug may offer those patients fresh hope, say researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
Their study, published in the February issue of Cancer Cell, found that a compound called AMN107 effectively blocked proliferation of Bcr-Ab1-dependent cells taken from CML patients. Bcr-Ab1 is a protein that's abnormally active in many CML patients. AMN107 proved to be a more potent inhibitor of Bcr-Ab1 than Gleevec (imatinib), inhibiting the growth of cells expressing numerous Bcr-Ab1 mutations resistant to Gleevec.
In addition, AMN107 prolonged the survival of mice with Gleevec-resistant CML, the researchers said.
The researchers have just started Phase I clinical trials of the experimental compound.
"If human clinical trials validate the effectiveness of AMN107 demonstrated in the preclinical studies reported here, it may be possible to either use AMN107 in selected patients with imatinib resistance, or to use both agents together, simultaneously or sequentially," research leader Dr. James D. Griffin said in a prepared statement.
More information
The U.S. National Library of Medicine has more about CML.
