Leukemia overpowers drug in two ways
By Nathan Seppa
The medicine known commercially as Gleevec serves as a powerful weapon for people fighting the blood cancer called chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML. Although the drug appears to cure many patients, it usually provides only fleeting improvement for those who have entered the crisis stage of the lethal disease.
A new finding could help scientists patch this weakness in the drug’s otherwise potent assault on CML. In an upcoming issue of Science, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) reveal how this cancer rebounds.