Hybrid targeted therapy effective in treating Gleevec-resistant disease

BOSTON–Using rational drug design strategies, investigators atDana-Farber Cancer Institute and Novartis Pharmaceuticals in Basel,Switzerland have created a targeted therapy for chronic myelogenousleukemia (CML) that may ultimately be more effective than Gleevec ®, thecurrent frontline treatment. The researchers report in the Februaryissue of Cancer Cell that the new compound, AMN107, is about 20 timesmore potent than Gleevec and is effective in treating Gleevec-resistantdisease in model systems.

"While Gleevec represents a major treatment advance for CML —approximately 95 percent of patients treated with Gleevec achieveremission — there clearly is a need for therapies that produce longerremissions, are active against advanced disease, and can be used whenGleevec loses effectiveness," says Dana-Farber’s James Griffin, MD,senior author of the study. "The goal of this study was to develop adrug that hits the same target on CML cells as Gleevec does, and to hitmore of the target."

Full Text at: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-02/dci-sfn021105.php