Offering two drugs at the beginning of treatment for chronic myeloid leukemia reduces risk of relapse

Filed under: Leukemia

Chronic myeloid leukemia is usually treated first with a imatinib (Gleevec) that targets the protein BCR-ABL. If there is a recurrence due to resistance to the imatinib, individuals are then treated with dasatinib (SPRYCEL), which targets in BCL-ABR in a different way. Unfortunately, resistance to dasatinib is now being seen.

A study by researchers led by Charles Sawyers at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center suggests that treating patients with both drugs in the beginning might decrease the chance of recurrence or at the very least, increase the time before such a relapse occurs. The authors suggest that treating patients with both drugs at first may prevent the emergence of the drug-resistant forms.

A third drug that can target both dasatinib- and imatinib resistant BCR-ABL is currently in trials.

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[Source: The Cancer Blog]