First-Line Treatment: Chronic-leukemia drug clears a big hurdle
By Nathan Seppa
The cancer drug imatinib created a stir a few years ago when it rescued leukemia patients who had failed to improve on other treatments. Now, in the first large-scale test of the drug in people newly diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), imatinib has stopped or reversed the disease in nearly all patients receiving it.
These findings indicate that imatinib–originally called STI-571 and now marketed under the name Gleevec–ought to be formally approved as the first-line treatment for CML, says study coauthor Richard A. Larson of the University of Chicago. Currently, the Food and Drug Administration endorses imatinib only for CML patients who have failed on standard therapy, although many U.S. physicians prescribe it more widely, Larson says.