New hope for high-risk child leukemia

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Oct. 12 (UPI) -- A new therapy is doubling survival rates for high-risk childhood Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Canadian researchers said.

The Phase 2 trial, published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, involved nearly 20 North American centers with a total of 92 patients ages 1-21.

"Adding continuous exposure to imatinib for two-and-a-half years made a big difference and increased the survival rates to 87 percent. The drug was well tolerated and it didn't have any significant side effects," study leader Dr. Kirk Schultz of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver said in a statement.

"Using imatinib plus chemotherapy had a synergistic type of interaction. I never expected these results. Although it's very promising, we need to do more follow up to get the five-year survival data and determine the long-term survival."

Imatinib, known commercially as Gleevec and used for some adult leukemias and gastrointestinal cancers, prevented cancer cells from proliferating by binding to a cancer cell protein, the researchers said.