Ms Drug Might Also Fight Leukemia

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 29 (UPI) -- A U.S. study suggested an experimental multiple sclerosis drug might also help people with certain forms of chronic and acute leukemia.

The Ohio State University laboratory and animal study focused on a drug, called fingolimod, which is also being tested to prevent organ transplantation rejection. Researchers said fingolimod might help patients with advanced chronic myelogenous leukemia, or CML, or acute lymphocytic leukemia, ALL, and whose cancer cells show a particular genetic change called the Philadelphia chromosome.

The study found the drug prevented the development of those cancers in mouse models, as well as killing laboratory-grown human CML and ALL cells.

Researchers said although the findings must yet be verified in humans, the findings suggest the drug might help leukemia patients who are resistant to imatinib (Gleevec) and dasatinib (Sprycel) -- two drugs commonly used to treat CML -- and those cases of ALL with the Philadelphia chromosome.

The study is reported in the online edition of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

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