Posts Tagged ‘Medical Scientists’

Innovative Solutions for Enhancing the Effects of Leukemia Treatments

Comments: 0May 5th, 2010 by admin



The treatment of leukemia involves various cancer therapies and long-term courses of specific medications. There are many forms of treatment for leukemia and most of them have pronounced side-effects. Although the medical treatments available today are effective in achieving complete remission, they also trigger serious undesirable effects among patients with leukemia. Considering this fact, medical scientists nowadays focus on improving the efficiency of cancer medications with minimal side-effects.

The improved version of the leukemia drug ATRA (all-trans retinoic acid) is considered to be a safer and a more reliable alternative to prolonged chemotherapy and traditional cancer medications. The enhanced version of the drug ATRA is Lipo-ATRA, a more advanced and effective cancer medication. Unlike the old version of the drug, the active agent of Lipo-ATRA is covered with a layer a fat. Its inventors claim that Lipo-ATRA remains inside the human body for longer periods of time, thus having increased efficiency in fighting leukemia cells. In addition, Lipo-ATRA can be administered intravenously, allowing the drug to act a lot quicker in fighting the disease. Thanks to its long-term action, Lipo-ATRA can also minimize the risks of relapse.

During the trial period, Lipo-ATRA has proved to be very effective in overcoming acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). Patients with AML that have been administered the enhanced version of ATRA have experienced a complete remission and they have remained asymptomatic for long periods of time. The majority of patients with AML have even exceeded the critical five-year period of remission, thus being completely cured.

Medical scientists are very satisfied with the potential and the safety of the new drug. They sustain that Lipo-ATRA is a reliable replacement for traditional chemotherapy. Medical scientists explain that more than a third of patients with acute myelogenous leukemia who receive Lipo-ATRA can be spared of prolonged chemotherapy. Considering the fact that the new drug acts very well on its own, patients often don’t require other adjutant cancer therapies or treatments.

In the trial period, the new drug Lipo-ATRA was tested on 34 patients with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). In the initial stages of treatment, Lipo-ATRA was administered along with idarubicin, a strong cancer medication. When patients began to achieve remission, Lipo-ATRA was administered without idarubicin. The effects of Lipo-ATRA were remarkable, as 10 patients among the 34 that participated to the study remained in remission for more than 5 years even after they stopped receiving adjutant chemotherapy drugs.

Thanks to its efficiency in curing leukemia and thanks to its fewer side-effects, Lipo-ATRA is considered to be the best option in overcoming the disease in present. An appropriate substitute for traditional chemotherapy, Lipo-ATRA may soon revolutionize the treatment of leukemia.

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Posted in leukimia

Myelodysplastic Syndrome and Leukemia

Comments: 0June 30th, 2009 by admin



Considered to be a benign disease for years, Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS) is nowadays known to pose a serious threat to people it affects. Recent studies have revealed that MDS is actually a malignant disease that can further lead to leukemia. Due to this fact, Myelodysplastic Syndrome is also referred to as pre-leukemia disease.

Similar to leukemia, MDS triggers an overproduction of abnormal blood cells that eventually outnumber their healthy counterparts. The cells involved in causing the disease are called blasts and they originate in the bone marrow. Dysfunctional blasts multiply at abnormally fast rates and accumulate in the marrow or in the bloodstream. These functionless cells perturb the production of normal blood cells, causing a decrease in the number of red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. As a result, people who suffer from MDS also have anemia, (due to fewer red blood cells), impaired immune system (due to fewer white blood cells) and experience slow healing (due to fewer platelets).

Many patients diagnosed with MDS are at risk of developing leukemia. In order to block the progression of MDS and to prevent the occurrence of leukemia, most patients receive treatments with decitabine, a new drug that is currently under testing.

Although most patients diagnosed with MDS respond well to treatments with mild chemotherapy drugs and decitabine, they commonly experience relapse after completing the prescribed course of medications. MDS has a pronounced recurrent character and despite its high curability in the initial stages of the disease, it becomes very difficult to treat in later stages of evolution.

Oncologists have noticed the fact that patients who relapse also become less responsive to second treatments. The exact reasons why most patients with MDS fail to respond to re-treatment are still unknown. However, this problem may be corrected by extending the duration of initial treatments. Medical scientists explain that a single long-term course of chemotherapy drugs and decitabine may provide better results than frequently repeated shorter treatments. They sustain that by extending the treatment with mild chemotherapy drugs and decitabine beyond the margin of remission, patients with MDS are less likely to relapse. In addition, medical scientists claim that patients who achieve remission should follow ongoing maintenance treatments in order to prevent the recurrence of the disease.

Recently conducted experiments have confirmed the fact that long-term treatments provide better results than repeated treatments in overcoming MDS. Patients who receive short-term treatments not only experience relapse, but they are also more exposed to developing acute leukemia and other severe forms of blood cancer. In order to prevent this from happening, an extended low-dose initial treatment with decitabine followed by maintenance treatments may be the best option for patients diagnosed with MDS.

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Posted in leukimia