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Testing of blood specimens may detect abnormal white blood cells in patients years before the chronic form of lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) develops, according to research published in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. The finding may lead to a better understanding of cellular changes that characterize the earliest stages of the disease and how it progresses.

Researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI), part of the National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, led the study, which was co-authored by two researchers with Quest Diagnostics Incorporated (NYSE: DGX), Maher Albitar, M.D., Medical Director and Chief of Research and Development, Hematology and Oncology, and Wanlong Ma, M.S., Research and Development Manager, Hematology and Oncology.

For the study, Dr. Albitar and Ms. Ma developed a method to identify abnormal B-cell clones in blood specimens. Quest Diagnostics plans to use a similar approach to develop tests that may one day be used by physicians as an aid in identifying patients who will develop CLL.

"We searched for tumor cells by performing a sophisticated form of flow cytometry as well as molecular testing on frozen samples of whole blood and blood plasma," said Dr. Albitar. "The findings of this study lead to better understanding of biological processes underlying the development of CLL, and give us hope that in the future we will be able to develop new testing techniques to look at blood from patients with abnormal cells and distinguish those who will develop overt cancer from those who will not."

The study, titled "B-Cell Clones as Early Markers for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia," (Vol. 360, No. 7, Feb. 12, 2009) was accompanied by the editorial "The Secret Lives of Monoclonal B Cells."

Labels: leukemia

Nevada Cancer Institute researcher and oncologist Kenneth A. Foon, M.D., had a paper published in the Feb. 1, 2009 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology regarding a new, highly effective novel therapy for chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

Granted this therapy is cancer specific, but I think it is a great starting point for finding other methods for a wider variety of cancers to be treated with less strain on the body.

While I am blessed to have never personally dealt with cancer, I have witnessed several family members and many other people go through treatments. Battling cancer is scary enough and then to see all they go through in an effort be treated and cured is heartbreaking.

The trial designed by Dr. Foon whose purpose was to maintain the high responses but reduce the toxicity of the popular treatment FCR (a combination of two toxic chemotherapy agents, fludarabine and cyclophosphamide, with the less toxic monoclonal antibody rituximab), by decreasing the fludarabine and cyclophosphamide, which Dr. Foon dubbed "FCR-Lite."

"The study was designed to develop a low toxicity highly effective therapy for this very common disease of an elderly population," Dr. Foon said.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia accounts for about one third of all leukemias and is the most common leukemia in adults. The American Cancer Society estimates that 15,110 new cases of chronic lymphocytic leukemia were diagnosed in the United States during 2008. About 4,390 people in the United States died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia during 2008.

Abstract of source

Labels: breast cancer, leukemia

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is the most common form of leukemia among adults, accounting for 40% of the cases. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is predicting about 15,5340 new cases of CLL will be diagnosed in 2007. About 95,579 people are living with CLL. Those are alarming numbers, but the good news is that progress is being made daily on better treatments.

The Institute of Cancer Research has just published an article discussing combo drug treatments for Leukemia patients.

"Patients with the most common type of leukemia achieved better responses to treatment with two cancer-fighting drugs than one in a large international study.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients also had much better survival rates without disease progression when treated with a combination of the chemotherapeutic drugs fludarabine and cyclophosphamide than patients treated with fludarabine alone or another single-agent chemotherapy, chlorambucil." (Source WebMD)

This information comes to us not long after hearing about a drug called CD37-SMIP, which targets a protein called CD37 on the surface of leukemia cells.
The study shows that it can successfully attach to the protein on the leukemia cells and kill them.

If you would like to help support finding a cure for leukemia you can sport a "relentless" red wristband. The bracelets cost $1 and proceeds go to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

Labels: cancer, leukemia, new drugs