Sean Kelly
Free Thinker
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Registered: Jan 2003
Local time: 12:38 AM
Location: Silicon Valley
Posts: 4292
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Leukemia Drug Gleevec Continues to Amaze
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[...] Jensen got the devastating news: Blood tests confirmed he had chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a deadly blood cancer.
In 1997, average life expectancy for CML patients "was about four to six, maybe seven years," according to Dr. Brian Druker, a cancer researcher at Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Oregon Health and Science University Cancer Institute, in nearby Portland.
Besides a bone marrow transplant, the powerful drug interferon was the only treatment available for patients such as Jensen, and it came with horrendous side effects.
[...]
I was patient 13 -- 'lucky 13,' " he said. Within a year of treatment, Jensen's white blood cell count began to return to normal, and now, more than four years later, his bone marrow samples fail to show any detectable trace of the genetic abnormality that causes CML.
[...]
The fact that the drug's target is so specific means that Gleevec has only minor, easily controlled side effects -- in Jensen's case, some mild gastrointestinal upset and a slight protrusion of the eyes. |
 Whoah! Slight protrusion of the eyes!? Gack! This drug sounds amazing though - three cheers for genetic research.
Smile; It confuses people.  |
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12-03-2004 11:47 PM
