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Researchers leading the SWOG S1712 clinical trial have found that adding ruxolitinib to standard tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) treatment for patients with chronic-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CP-CML) significantly increased the percentage of patients who had a molecular response deep enough to warrant discontinuing treatment. CML is often treated with a class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors. But leukemic stem cells can hide from TKIs in a patient's bone marrow. Preclinical data suggested that a drug called ruxolitinib can alter the bone marrow microenvironment to sensitize these stem cells to TKIs. In clinical trial S1712, they randomized 75 eligible...

According to researchers, 80% of patients with previously untreated or relapsed/refractory advanced-phase chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)—including both accelerated or myeloid blast phases of the disease—or Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) achieved a bone marrow remission when treated with a novel combination of decitabine, venetoclax and ponatinib. Findings from the Phase II clinical trial represent an important step forward for patients with advanced-phase CML, who tend to have poor outcomes. "Over the last decade, there have been very few studies that evaluated a regimen to treat this rare disease and identify a potential standard-of-care treatment," said Nicholas Short, M.D. "It...

In a recent study, researchers investigated why some patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) can discontinue their daily medication safely. CML, one of the four main types of blood cancer, affects the blood-forming cells in the bone marrow. Because the onset mechanism of the disease has been accurately identified, targeted drugs (tyrosine kinase inhibitors) now ensure that only a few patients die of disease. Researchers aim to develop the treatment of CML so that patients can discontinue their medication after a certain period. In such cases, the cancer may be considered cured. In their recent study, the researchers compared such...

CML Studios Carlos Leon, 25 www.cmlstudios.net North Hollywood, Calif. Carlos Leon is a media mogul in the making. With $25,000 in savings, and no outside financing, he managed to expand the multimedia business he started in a room in his parent's mobile home into a full-service production company with such clients as Warner Bros., VH1, Sirius, and MTV3. Leon, who earned a bachelor's degree in film from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Fla., says the business—which includes a 1,500 square-foot production studio that he built from scratch with help from friends. Up next: Leon is starting an online TV...

AP SCIENCE WRITER WASHINGTON -- A successful cancer-fighting drug may also damage the heart, although a researcher says leukemia patients who need Gleevec should not abandon it. While effectively treating cancer, Gleevec can lead to heart failure in some patients, said Dr. Thomas Force, who teaches medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. His study, published Sunday in the online edition of the journal Nature Medicine, was prompted by reports that 10 patients taking Gleevec for chronic myelogenous leukemia developed severe congestive heart failure. Gleevec, sold under the Glivec in some countries, had worldwide sales of...