The success continues for tyrosine kinase inhibitor STI 571, which now has been shown to prolong the lives of leukemia patients in blast crisis. Last year, the Novartis drug proved to be a revelatory treatment for Philadelphia-chromosome-positive leukemia patients in early stage disease. Now Moshe Talpaz of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, shows that it works well for similar patients in myeloid or lymphoid blast crisis. Nearly three-quarters of the 51 patients treated with the drug show a response, and six patients have very durable responses beyond expected, two of them for more than one year. This highly directed therapy ?represents a whole new world in oncology where we attack the direct enemy that is driving the disease,? Talpaz says in the ASCO meeting.
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