New Drug Treats Leukemia Better Than Chemotherapy

Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer

The pill, developed by The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute, works by targeting a particular enzyme within the cancer cells that feeds their growth.

Its called ibrutinib, and its a potential breakthrough in treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) that could leave patients with fewer side effects than chemotherapy.

In research published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), scientists report that the experimental drug, which differs from broadly acting chemotherapy agents by specifically targeting certain cancer-causing processes, significantly prolongs the life of patients. Ibrutinib is currently being tested on tumors that target the bodys immune system, such as CLL and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL).

CLL is the second most common form ofleukemia among adults in the U.S., and about 15,000 Americans, most of whom are elderly, are diagnosed with the blood and bone marrow cancer every year. The drug is the first to bind to and block the activity of a protein known as Brutons tyrosine kinase (BTK), which plays an important role in helping immune cell tumors, which develop from abnormally growing blood stem cells, to grow. Once ibrutinib binds to the immune systems B-cells, it prevents tumors growing in these cells from signalling for the nutrients they need to grow and divide. According to the study, the drug doesnt seem to affect the bodys T-cells, as chemotherapy agents do, so patients experience fewer side effects.

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Early work on animals showed that the experimental drug effectively shut down tumor cell division, so the researchers tested the compound on 85 CLL patients who had all tried and failed to respond to at least two other anti-cancer treatments. Some even harbored genetic mutations associated with particularly aggressive forms of CLL that typically lead to death within two years of diagnosis. The patients were randomized to take one of two different doses of ibrutinib a day. Three pills of ibrutinib are taken once a day. After nearly two years of treatment, 71% of this hard-to-treat group had responded with slower tumor growth, and at 26 months, 75% showed no additional progression of their cancer. At the end of the study period, 83% of the participants were still alive, and most of the patients only complained of diarrhea and fatigue.

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This is truly a breakthrough drug for CLL.I have been a CLL specialist since 1997, and we have not had a drug like this come into the field yet, says study author Dr.John C. Byrd, the director of the division of hematology The Ohio State Comprehensive Cancer Center. The most common thing I have heard patients say is that it brings their disease under control and makes them feel how they did before their cancer. Ive heard that at least a dozen times.

The scientists and patients were most encouraged by the fact that the the drug helped them to enjoy a longer period of time, on average, in which their tumors remained stable and didnt progress, than they they had while using chemotherapy agents.

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New Drug Treats Leukemia Better Than Chemotherapy