New approaches needed for treating chronic myeloid leukaemia

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) was transformed from a fatal disease to a chronic condition by the development of a drug known as imatinib, which targets the protein that drives this disease (BCR-ABL). However, imatinib does not cure patients, they must take the drug lifelong, as disease recurs if they stop taking it. This is because imatinib does not kill all the CML cells; some, which are known as CML stem cells, persist. A key to therapeutically targeting CML stem cells is knowing whether they rely on BCR-ABL to persist. Answers to this will determine whether more effective BCR-ABL inhibitors are likely to be effective treatments or whether new approaches to targeting these cells need to be developed...

Read the whole article on

More from