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Studies from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Institute of Hematology provide new data on acute myeloid leukemia therapy
April 7th, 2008
2008 APR 7 -- Fresh data on acute myeloid leukemia are presented in the report 'Acute promyelocytic leukemia: from highly fatal to highly curable.' "Acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) is a distinct subtype of acute myeloid leukemia. Morphologically, it is identified as the M3 subtype of acute myeloid leukemia by the French-American-British classification and cytogenetically is characterized by a balanced reciprocal translocation between chromosomes 15 and 17, which results in the fusion between promyelocytic leukemia (PML) gene and retinoic acid receptor alpha (RARalpha)," scientists in Shanghai, People's Republic of China report. "It seems that the disease is the most malignant form of acute leukemia with a severe bleeding tendency and a fatal course of only weeks. Chemotherapy (CT; daunorubicin, idarubicin and cytosine arabinoside) was the front-line treatment of APL with a complete remission (CR) rate of 75% to 80% in newly diagnosed patients. Despite all these progresses, the median duration of remission ranged from 11 to 25 months and only 35% to 45% of the patients could be cured by CT. Since the introduction of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) in the treatment and optimization of the ATRA-based regimens, the CR rate was raised up to 90% to 95% and 5-year disease free survival (DFS) to 74%. The use of arsenic trioxide (ATO) since early 1990s further improved the clinical outcome of refractory or relapsed as well as newly diagnosed APL," wrote Z.Y. Wang and colleagues, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Institute of Hematology. The researchers concluded: "In this article, we review the history of introduction of ATRA and ATO into clinical use and the mechanistic studies in understanding this model of cancer targeted therapy." Wang and colleagues published their study in Blood (Acute promyelocytic leukemia: from highly fatal to highly curable. Blood, 2008;111(5):2505-15). For more information, contact Z.Y. Wang, Riu Jin Hospital, Shanghai Institute of Hematology and State Key Laboratory of Medical Genomics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, 197 Rui Jin Road II, Shanghai, China. Publisher contact information for the journal Blood is: American Society Hematology, 1900 M Street. NW Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036, USA. Keywords: People's Republic of China, Shanghai, Acute Myeloid Leukemia Therapy, Acute Leukemia, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia, Antibiotic, Antineoplastic, Chemotherapy, Daunorubicin, Drug Therapy, Genetics, Hematology, Idarubicin, Oncology, Retinoic Acid, Treatment. This article was prepared by Biotech Business Week editors from staff and other reports. Copyright 2008, Biotech Business Week via NewsRx.com.
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