Drug hope for leukaemia sufferers

Obinutuzumab could give leukaemia sufferers 'life-prolonging' treatment, a charity said
16 May 2013

A new leukaemia drug could give "hope" to many patients who previously had nowhere left to turn, a blood cancer charity said.

Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research said obinutuzumab could give patients "effective, life-prolonging treatment".

The drug appears to be "more effective" than another monoclonal antibody - a medication which harnesses the body's own immune system to target cancer cells - which is currently used alongside chemotherapy to treat chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), the charity said.

Manufacturers Roche say that the drug, also known as GA101, can "reduce the risk of cancer worsening or death by up to 86%" when used with chemotherapy compared to just having chemo alone for patients with CLL. The pharmaceutical company said that 22% of patients who took the drug alongside chemotherapy during clinical trials were "disease free" after treatment.

Study author Professor Chris Fegan, from Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, said: "These significant data mark an exciting step forward in the treatment of this disease. One of the key challenges we face in treating CLL is that many patients are over the age of 60 and suffer from co-existing medical conditions such as diabetes and heart disease, which make them unfit to receive the most aggressive treatments.

"These data show that adding GA101 to chlorambucil chemotherapy offers a tolerable combination that can substantially improve response and remission time for patients in urgent need of new treatment options."

Professor Chris Bunce, research director at Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research, added: "The blood cancer chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) is the most common type of adult leukaemia but it is currently incurable, so new treatments are desperately needed. These results give hope to those patients who previously had few options left for effective treatment.

"In recent years the introduction of treatments known as monoclonal antibodies, which harness the body's own immune system to target cancer cells, has successfully prolonged survival times for CLL patients when combined with traditional chemotherapy. However, not all patients respond to treatment.

"Obinutuzumab is the first 'second generation' monoclonal antibody and it appears to be significantly more effective than earlier versions. Monoclonal antibody treatments are used in the treatment of many types of lymphoma as well as CLL, so the development of a more effective version could be a very exciting prospect. In the immediate term, these results give hope of effective, life-prolonging treatment to those CLL patients who previously had few options left."

Leukaemia is cancer of the white blood cells. More than 8,200 people were struck down with the disease in 2010, and in the same year it accounted for 4,500 deaths.

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