New Leukemia Drugs Bring Chemotherapy-Free Treatment Potential

[xchrom]

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-12-09/new-leukemia-drugs-bring-chemotherapy-free-treatment-potential.html

New medicines from Gilead Sciences Inc. (GILD), Roche Holding AG (ROG), Pharmacyclics Inc. (PCYC) and others are poised to reshape treatment of the most common form of leukemia among adults, potentially eliminating chemotherapy from regimens and extending patients’ lives.

The therapies target specific biological pathways known to drive chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a typically slow-moving cancer of the blood and bone marrow that usually strikes older people, some of whom can’t tolerate the toxic chemotherapies that are part of current treatment regimens.

Data presented on several of the medicines yesterday at the American Society of Hematology meeting in New Orleans suggest combination regimens may arise that remove the need for chemotherapy and its related toxic side effects while driving better results, said Richard Furman, director of the CLL Research Center at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York.

The new drugs “herald a dawn of a new age for CLL patients,” Furman told reporters yesterday in New Orleans. “This really is, I think, a great opportunity for us to do what I consider to be the most important thing for our patients: eliminate chemotherapy from our treatment paradigm.”

[HuckleB]

1. But, but... BIG PHARMA!!!!

Sorry, I've just had it with the anti-science trolls lately.