POST-PRESS: New Gold Standard in Leukemia Therapy

Daniel J. DeNoon of WebMD Health News reported on 30 September 2010 that a new gold standard in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) chemotherapy has been established. The new standard added Rituxan to the old standard chemotherapy, and so far raises three-year survival to 65 percent. "Nobody expected Rituxan to have such a dramatic effect in CLL," De Noon wrote.

CLL is the most common form of leukemia afflicting adults. Five out of 100,000 people get hit with it each year, mostly the middle-agers and elderly. About 8 percent of those with CLL, the high-risk group, lost the p53 marker in their cancer cells. This marker fortunately becomes CLL's Achilles heel that standard chemotherapy exploits.

Rituxan however does not work through p53, and cannot be used when p53 exists.

Rituxan is a chimeric monoclonal antibody that attacks protein CD20, which is primarily found on the surface of B cells. It can destroy B cells in the process. Chemically, it contains 6416 Carbon molecules, 9874 Hydrogens, 1688 Nitrogens, 1987 Oxygens, and 44 Sulfurs.

Comments

Deadly X-Gene Mutants

A RECENT study on macrophages (i.e. defensive cells in our body that engulf threatening substances inside our body) introduced me to a lethal, genetic disease that targets the male population. This disease is called Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD), named after the French neurologist Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne, who described it in 1861. While it has an incidence of one in 3,500 newborn males, health experts consider this as the most common lethal disease of childhood around the world. Mutation in the male (X) chromosome [dystrophin gene, locus Xp21] causes a rapid degeneration of the muscles, leading into an eventual loss of walking ability and then death. While females do not exhibit symptoms, they can be carriers of these defective genes, especially if the father had this condition or the mother is also a carrier. Symptoms usually appear before age five; at times visible in early infancy. These symptoms involve... ( Read more .) This article appears in Sun-Star Ce...

Death By Heat Stroke in the Philippines

The hotter and earlier-onset El Niño phenomenon this year 2010 poses a threat to the Filipino lives. How much life it took? See incidence that reached the news. UPDATE On 19 May 2010, candidate army soldier Ericson Pascua (22) came on his first day of training in Isabela when he collapsed after a series of strenous exercise. Although rushed to the hospital immediately, he died shortly afterwards (around 11 a.m.) due to heat stroke. That day Isabela peaked at 38.2 degrees Celsius. Sixteen others were rushed to the hospital for dehydration and heat exhaustion. (Check report ) On 28 April 2010, a veteran Cavite cop, PO3 Florencio Gamana Alivio (48), succumbed to cardiac arrest as a result to heatstroke while having tae bo with his colleagues at the Cavite Police Provincial Office (CPPO) grounds in Camp General Pantaleon. He reached the Imus MEdical Center but pronounced dead at 5:15 PM. (Check report ) In Batangas, former governor Amando Sanchez (57)di...

Breakthroughs Today

Search This Blog