Leukemia

Data published in a recent issue of Blood suggest that valspodar (Amdray), a multidrug resistance modulator being developed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, may show promise in treating certain patients with acute myelogenous leukemia

MIAMI BEACH, Florida-Cutaneous T-cell lymphomas (CTCL) often cause severe facial disfigurement that adversely affects a patient’s quality-of-life. A new fusion protein, DAB389IL-2 (denileukin diftitox, Ontak), has produced significant response rates in heavily pretreated relapsed CTCL patients and improved quality of life, Madeleine Duvic, MD, said at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting.

The combination of fludarabine and mitoxantrone (FM) has been shown to be an effective regimen for indolent lymphoma (J

MIAMI BEACH-Long-term follow-up of 23 patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) in first complete remission showed a relatively low relapse rate at 3 years when treated with allogeneic bone marrow transplant from HLA-matched siblings, D.S. Snyder, MD, reported at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting.

TUCSON-Cyclosporine (Sandimmune) significantly reduces resistance to daunorubicin (Cerubidine), prolongs the duration of remission, and improves overall survival of patients with high-risk acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), Alan F. List, MD, of the University of Arizona, said at the ASH meeting. Dr. List’s observations were based on a randomized trial conducted with the Southwest Oncology Group.

SEATTLE-Preliminary phase II data show that CMA-676, an engineered human anti-CD33 antibody linked to calicheamicin, a potent cytotoxic agent, produced an objective response in 10 of 23 patients (43%) with acute myelogenous leukemia in first relapse after initial chemotherapy. Six responders went on to allogeneic bone marrow transplant.

CHICAGO-A cost analysis of the use of G-CSF (Neupogen) in elderly patients undergoing intensive chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) showed the agent to be almost cost neutral, Tammy J. Stinson, MS, said at a poster session of the American Society of Hematology annual meeting.

GOTEBORG, Sweden-A postconsolidation regimen of low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2) and the investigational agent histamine dihydrochloride (Maxamine) appears to increase leukemia-free survival in acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients in remission, Bo I. Nilsson, MD, PhD, reported at an ASH poster session.

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is a myeloproliferative disorder that follows a characteristic clinical course in which a chronic phase of variable duration precedes an accelerated, and ultimately blastic, phase,

Chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) is an intriguing disease for reasons that point to important biological differences between this and other types of leukemia:

WASHINGTON--Despite questions about dose levels and number of treatment courses, the FDA’s Oncology Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) gave a vote of confidence to Seragen’s Ontak (denileukin diftitox or DAB389IL-2) for its approval for use in cutaneous T-cell lymphoma (CTCL) that persists or recurs despite prior therapy. Ontak is an interleukin-2 (IL-2) fusion protein that delivers a diphtheria toxin fragment to lesions via IL-2 receptor binding. The panel was not asked to formally recommend the agent to the FDA.

Individualizing the dosage of cancer chemotherapy can increase survival rates for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) without causing excessive toxicity, according to a recent study published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

The management of patients with the less aggressive subtypes of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma remains a clinical challenge. As pointed out by Webster and Cella, this challenge relates, at least in part, to the comparatively long median survival that can be achieved in such patients with a wide variety of treatment approaches. However, it is very important to realize that not all patients with the indolent varieties of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are the same.

Cancer treatment often has debilitating effects on the patients who receive it. Chemotherapy regimens can produce toxicities, such as gastrointestinal disturbances, hematologic deficiencies, fatigue, and neurotoxicity. Patients typically undergo these chemotherapy regimens to increase their disease-free survival time. Given that these therapies can negatively affect a patient’s quality of life (QOL), treatments need to provide clear curative potential and/or survival benefits to offset detrimental effects on QOL.

SAN DIEGO-Up to 80% of newly diagnosed elderly acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) patients overexpress P-glycoprotein (P-gp), leading to multidrug resistance and a poor prognosis, said Dr. P. Sonneveld, University Hospital, Rotterdam, in a presentation at the American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting.

ASH-Long-term treatment with alfa-interferon has continued advantages over conventional chemotherapy with hydroxyurea in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), according to updated findings from the Italian Cooperative Study Group on CML. Prolonged survival in the alfa-interferon-treated patients closely correlated with cytogenetic response, Sante Tura, MD, reported at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego.

Researchers found that men who use cocaine are twice as likely as abstainers to develop intermediate- or high-grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). For those who use cocaine more frequently, ie, on at least nine occasions, the risk is more than triple what nonusers face, says Rebecca Nelson, a doctoral student in the preventive medicine department at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Medicine, in an article published recently in the British Journal of Cancer.

ASH-Patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) who are eligible for transplant but lack a matched sibling donor should begin their search for an unrelated donor as soon as possible after diagnosis, A. James Morton, MD, said at the plenary session of the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) in San Diego.

Drs. Enright and McGlave succinctly review the biology of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and highlight the therapeutic role of allogeneic stem-cell transplantation. Two points, however, warrant further discussion. The first is that a regimen containing interferon-alfa (Intron A, Roferon-A) is optimal front-line therapy for the great majority of CML patients.[1] The second is that use of an interferon-alfa-based regimen prior to allogeneic stem-cell transplantation does not adversely affect post-transplant mortality, morbidity, or anti-CML efficacy.

ASCO--Treatment with an investigational immunoconjugate, CMA-676, safely induced remissions in some patients with refractory or relapsed acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), Eric L. Sievers, MD, said in his poster presentation of the preliminary results at the American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting.

ORLANDO--Combination therapy utilizing interferon alfa-2b (Intron A) and cytarabine is associated with improved cytogenetic response and survival over interferon alone in patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a French study, presented at the 38th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), has shown.

ORLANDO--A preparative regimen employing a radiolabeled monoclonal antibody (MoAb), coupled with busulfan (Myleran) and cyclophosphamide (Cytoxan, Neosar), yielded a low relapse rate in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) undergoing bone marrow transplantation (BMT) while in first remission.

Leukemia Society of America (LSA) scientist Dr. Brian Druker has described a drug that may be useful for combatting chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML). The new drug may be able to target leukemia cells, a much sought-after approach to cancer treatment.

Responding to the need for more efficacious and less toxic treatments for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), researchers at the University of Pennsylvania are exploring a novel form of gene therapy. By interfering with the transmission of a crucial message, they hope to prevent malignant cell growth without affecting normal hematopoietic cells.

Following unmodified allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT), up to 60% of patients with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) will relapse. The management of relapsed CML has proven especially difficult, because cytotoxic drugs and interferon-alfa (Intron A, Roferon-A) seldom cure the disease, and a second bone marrow transplant is associated with high mortality.