Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0023473 (chronic myeloid leukemia)
 18,916 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Recently, non-genotoxic drugs have succeeded in several hematologic malignancies such as chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) or indolent non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Unlike this, alkylating chemotherapy is still a backbone of anti-myeloma drug treatment in the vast majority of 'medically fit' subjects. With the introduction of the immunomodulatory drugs thalidomide and lenalidomide, a novel class of compounds was integrated into therapy of multiple myeloma. Either drug may be delivered for a prolonged time; however fatigue, constipation and neuropathy prevent thalidomide from serving as a 'continuous' treatment. Lenalidomide has been approved for treatment of relapsed multiple myeloma, to be delivered as a continuous therapy. Since the drug lacks thalidomide's severe side effects, it is being explored on a continuous maintenance basis both after conventional therapy and after autologous stem cell transplantation. Preliminary data of respective clinical trials that have become available show highly significant differences in event-free survival times, favoring continuous lenalidomide over placebo. Currently, it is still unclear whether this will translate also into an overall survival benefit after prolonged follow-up.
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PMID:Continuous treatment in multiple myeloma - ready for prime time? 2193 48

Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a challenging disease to treat with the majority of patients dying from their illness. While overall survival has been markedly prolonged in acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL), survival in younger adults with other subtypes of AML has only modestly improved over the last twenty years. Physicians who treat AML eagerly await drugs like Imatinib for chronic myeloid leukemia, Cladribine for hairy cell leukemia, and Rituximab for non-Hodgkin Lymphoma which have had an important impact on improving outcome. Recent research efforts have focused on refining traditional chemotherapeutic agents to make them more active in AML, targeting specific genetic mutations in myeloid leukemia cells, and utilizing novel agents such as Lenalidomide that have shown activity in other hematologic malignancies. Here, we focus on reviewing the recent literature on agents that may assume a role in clinical practice for patients with AML over the next five years.
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PMID:Novel and emerging drugs for acute myeloid leukemia. 2248 53