Two drugs approved for use as second line therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia are showing promising results as frontline therapy for newly diagnosed patients in two clinical trials, research teams led by scientists at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center report at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Relapsed chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients who had a complete response to combination therapy that included the drug oblimersen survived significantly longer than patients treated with chemotherapy alone, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Patients whose immune system responded to a peptide vaccine for leukemia enjoyed a median remission that was more than three times longer than non-responders, a team led by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports at the 49th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology.

Gleevec, the targeted cancer pill that has saved more than 100,000 lives, now is saving more children with a dire leukemia, as well as preventing disease progression with long term use in adults with chronic myeloid leukemia.

The genetic abnormalities that cause acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are many and varied. Although mice engineered to mimic a single genetic abnormality eventually develop leukemia, it is thought that a second genetic defect occurring as the mice age is required for this to happen. Support for this “2-hit” hypothesis has now been generated by Pier Giuseppe Pelicci and colleagues from the European Institute of Oncology, Italy.

In the November 1st issue of G&D, Dr. Michael Cleary (Stanford University School of Medicine) and colleagues identify the gene Meis1 as a critical player in the establishment of leukemia stem cells, and the development of MLL leukemia.

A new, easily ingested form of a compound that has already shown it can attack the roots of leukemia in laboratory studies is moving into human clinical trials, according to a new article by University of Rochester investigators in the journal, Blood.

In people with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), the drug Imatinib has been shown to drive cancer into remission, but the disease often returns when treatment is stopped. New research by UC Irvine scientists indicates that Imatinib could cure CML under certain circumstances if it is taken over a long enough period of time.

The British Library has launched a competition calling for Avant Garde inspired designs from postgraduate students. The challenge to postgraduate creatives has been announced in advance of the Library's forthcoming exhibition, Breaking the Rules: The Printed Face of the European Avant Garde 1900-1937.

A novel strategy to hopefully beat into oblivion one of the most aggressive forms of acute myelogenous leukemia combines the strengths of some of the newest leukemia agents, researchers say.

A new study provides evidence that noncoding RNAs and interactions between noncoding genes play a much greater role in human cancer than was previously understood. The research, published by Cell Press in the September issue of the journal Cancer Cell, may be useful for identifying tumor-specific signatures associated with diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer.

Congestive heart failure rarely occurs among leukemia patients who take imatinib, researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center found after an exhaustive review of the detailed medical histories of 1,276 patients who enrolled in clinical trials for the drug.