Innovative Treatment for Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is Offered at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, Israel

Acute Myeloid Leukemia is a prevalent kind of Leukemia, a chromosomal disorder known as the Philadelphia Chromosome (molecular sign BCR/ABL). Statistics indicate that in Israel 1.5 people out of a population of 100,000 will develop Acute Myeloid Leukemia. This means that 100 new cases of AML are diagnosed in Israel each year.

Until just a few years ago the only treatment available that offered any chance of a cure for AML was a bone marrow transplant from a donor. Chances for success were, however, very limited.  

Six years ago a medicine was developed that acted on the basic disease mechanism. Clinical test results showed the drug to be effective in patients who were in the first stages of the disease. However, it was not effective in patients in more advanced stages of the disease. In addition 15% of first stage AML patients did not respond to the medicine, and total response (molecular response) was achieved in only 5% of the patients. This lack of response was attributed mainly to genetic changes, or mutations, that render the disease resistant to medication.

Over the last two years a new medication, BMS354825, has been developed. This new drug has five hundred times the capability as the previous drug. It has been found effective in 90% of the patients who developed a mutation, and had not responded to drugs previously.

This new drug for the treatment of AML was presented for the first time at the last American Congress of Hematologists, which took place in December 2004 in New Orleans. Treatment with this new drug was highly effective in patients who no longer responded to the first treatment administered to them.

At the Hematology Department at the Sheba Medical Center, clinical tests with the innovative medication BMS354825 have just begun. Patients who have developed resistance to medication and patients in advanced stages of the disease are taking part in the tests.

The Sheba Medical Center recently acquired sophisticated technologies with the capability to identify the gene mutation that causes resistance to treatment.
The director of the Hematology Division at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Prof. Arnon Nagler, says, "We are hopeful that this new medication BMS354825 will bring relief to patients suffering from AML, a disease that until recently had no cure".