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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A recent discovery suggests the best way to treat leukemia may be to rely on a combination of targeted drugs rather than a single miracle drug.
An anti-leukemia drug called imatinib is currently the most popular therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), which accounts for 15 to 20 percent of all adult leukemia cases in the western world.
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Imatinib works by slowing down the spread of cancer cells, but it doesnt work in everyone and many people often develop a resistance to the therapy. Resistance most likely happens because the drug only targets mature cells, leaving self-renewing cancer stem cells untouched. However, a team of researchers from around the world found a cancer-causing protein called AHI-1 could also make imatinib less effective.
Researchers found that by blocking AHI-1 in imatinib-resistant CML patients, they were able to restore the ability of the drug to kill cancer cells. Researchers say the next step is to find a drug that blocks AHI-1, which could potentially be given in combination with imatinib in the future.
SOURCE: Journal of Experimental Medicine, published online Oct. 20, 2008
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