Thursday, July 19, 2007
Hope for patients with 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.

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