Doctors Excited by New Cancer Treatment

“Molecularly Targeted Therapy.” The treatment consists of drugs designed at the molecular level of the cell to specifically attack and kill only the cancer cells of a specific type of cancer. And they are tailor-made to recognize specific molecules unique to specific cancers.

The model drug leading the way is Glivec, also known as STI571. It is active against a relatively rare form of leukemia, chronic myeloid leukemia, or CML characterized by excessive overproduction of white blood cells. Approximately 7,000 Americans are diagnosed with CML each year.

Doctors are extremely hopeful that the drug could provide a model for similar drugs to treat cancers affecting many thousands more people. This year, alone, some 1.3 million Americans will be diagnosed with cancer.

“This is as important as it gets. A cancer-specific target, a drug specifically designed for the target, the most effective agent ever,”says Paul A. Bunn Jr., president-elect of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. “Read my lips, this is real, not mice.”

Dr. Brian Druker, director of the Leukemia Program at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, is the main researcher on the drug, which is being developed by Novartis Pharmaceuticals.