A new experimental drug may be effective against a certain form of leukemia resistant to current treatments, research at UT Southwestern Medical Center shows. “This novel anti-leukemia drug that we have been working on shows considerable promise for going into the clinic,” said Dr. Robert Ilaria Jr., associate professor of internal medicine and molecular biology and senior author of the study that will appear in an upcoming issue of Blood. The study is available online.The study on the drug, called PD166326, was done in mice with a form of leukemia similar to human chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), which is diagnosed in about 5,000 people in the United States each year. Patients with CML produce a mutated enzyme that stimulates white blood cells to overproduce, causing leukemia.The Blood study shows that PD166326 is nearly 100 times more potent than the current drug imatinib (Gleevec) against cells expressing this enzyme, Dr. Ilaria said. More...
