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Leukemia drug breakthrough study in New England Journal of Medicine

Tampa, FL (Feb. 9, 2005) - Alan List, M.D., leader of the Hematologic Malignancies Program at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, recently conducted a phase I/II trial of the experimental drug Revlimid showing promise as an innovative way to treat patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), a form of pre-leukemia. Given in pill form, Revlimid simultaneously blocks the growth of new blood vessels that nourish tumors (anti-angiogenesis) and stimulates the immune system to fight cancer cells. The study is reported in the Feb.10 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Nearly 90 percent of MDS patients are anemic and require regular transfusions of red cells. In this study, 91 percent of the MDS patients with a chromosome abnormality named 5q minus syndrome became transfusion independent. The defective 5q chromosome abnormality may be linked to other serious cancers, including leukemias and small cell lung cancer.

In another finding of the same study, all the patients with the 5q deletion who became transfusion independent also went into cytogenetic remission, meaning that the chromosome abnormality disappeared.

List, a professor of interdisciplinary oncology at the University of South Florida, initially developed the phase I clinical trial of Revlimid for treatment of MDS following his laboratory observations that the agent improved the growth of red blood cell precursors from MDS bone marrow. Celgene will submit the seminal findings of List's phase I trial - along with data from two recent confirmatory phase II clinical trials performed nationwide involving more than 350 patients with red blood cell transfusion-dependent MDS - to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in a new drug application (NDA) for Revlimid as an innovative approach to treat the anemia of MDS patients with the 5q minus deletion.

In 2001, the National Cancer Institute awarded Moffitt the status of a Comprehensive Cancer Center in recognition of its excellence in research and contributions to clinical trials, prevention and cancer control. Additionally, Moffitt is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, a prestigious alliance of the country's leading cancer centers, and is listed in the U.S. News & World Report as one of the top cancer hospitals in America. Moffitt's sole mission is to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer.

Contact: Andrea Brunais
[email protected]
813-632-1478
University of South Florida Health Sciences Center

Ethics leader diagnosed with acute leukemia

Associated Baptist Press
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - March 16, 2005 - The head of a moderate Baptist ethics and educational agency has been diagnosed with acute leukemia.

Robert Parham, founding executive director of the Baptist Center for Ethics, has been diagnosed with acute leukemia, according to a staffer for the Nashville-based organization. Bob Allen, managing editor for EthicsDaily.com, BCE's web portal, said March 15 that Parham was receiving chemotherapy treatments at Vanderbilt University Hospital.

Parham was BCE's founding director when it was established in 1991. Previously, he worked for the Southern Baptist Convention's Christian Life Commission (now known as the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission).

Stem cell blood bank is planned for Glasgow

A GLASGOW hospital is likely to become the home of a new lifesaving stem cell blood bank using babies umbilical cords.
Blood left in the placenta after the cord has been cut is usually disposed off but can be used for treating leukemia and other blood disorders. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Centre is looking at maternity hospitals in the west of Scotland with either the Queen Mother's or Princess Royal the likely choice. The blood is rich in stem cells and a transplant can help rebuild the body's immune system. Mothers will be able to make a voluntary donation of their blood, which will be frozen and stored for future use in a patient who is a match. The umbilical cord blood (UCB) can be used for similar purposes as bone marrow to create new blood cells for leukemia patients.

Everyone has blood stem cells but new born babies have more and have them circulating in the blood stream.
Normally they are found in the bone marrow, waiting to be used to fight off an infection when the body is under attack, when they start to produce white blood cells. Patients' chances are improved as cord blood, unlike bone marrow, does not need an exact match. Rachel Green, of the West of Scotland Blood Transfusion Centre, said: "Cord blood is a natural waste product, so we are obviously hoping people will be quite happy to donate it. Otherwise it would just go in the bin."

The site for the bank will be selected to give the centre the widest ethnic mix of mothers to allow the collection of a wide range of tissue types. Glasgow's Queen Mother's serves mainly the west of the city and beyond, while the Princess Royal, at the Royal Infirmary, caters largely for mothers in the north and east.

A GLASGOW hospital is likely to become the home of a new lifesaving stem cell blood bank using babies umbilical cords.
Blood left in the placenta after the cord has been cut is usually disposed off but can be used for treating leukemia and other blood disorders.

The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Centre is looking at maternity hospitals in the west of Scotland with either the Queen Mother's or Princess Royal the likely choice.
The blood is rich in stem cells and a transplant can help rebuild the body's immune system.

Mothers will be able to make a voluntary donation of their blood, which will be frozen and stored for future use in a patient who is a match. The umbilical cord blood (UCB) can be used for similar purposes as bone marrow to create new blood cells for leukemia patients.

Everyone has blood stem cells but new born babies have more and have them circulating in the blood stream.
Normally they are found in the bone marrow, waiting to be used to fight off an infection when the body is under attack, when they start to produce white blood cells. Patients' chances are improved as cord blood, unlike bone marrow, does not need an exact match. Rachel Green, of the West of Scotland Blood Transfusion Centre, said: "Cord blood is a natural waste product, so we are obviously hoping people will be quite happy to donate it. Otherwise it would just go in the bin."

The site for the bank will be selected to give the centre the widest ethnic mix of mothers to allow the collection of a wide range of tissue types. Glasgow's Queen Mother's serves mainly the west of the city and beyond, while the Princess Royal, at the Royal Infirmary, caters largely for mothers in the north and east.

A GLASGOW hospital is likely to become the home of a new lifesaving stem cell blood bank using babies umbilical cords.
Blood left in the placenta after the cord has been cut is usually disposed off but can be used for treating leukemia and other blood disorders. The Scottish National Blood Transfusion Centre is looking at maternity hospitals in the west of Scotland with either the Queen Mother's or Princess Royal the likely choice. The blood is rich in stem cells and a transplant can help rebuild the body's immune system.

Mothers will be able to make a voluntary donation of their blood, which will be frozen and stored for future use in a patient who is a match. The umbilical cord blood (UCB) can be used for similar purposes as bone marrow to create new blood cells for leukemia patients.

Everyone has blood stem cells but new born babies have more and have them circulating in the blood stream.
Normally they are found in the bone marrow, waiting to be used to fight off an infection when the body is under attack, when they start to produce white blood cells. Patients' chances are improved as cord blood, unlike bone marrow, does not need an exact match.

Rachel Green, of the West of Scotland Blood Transfusion Centre, said: "Cord blood is a natural waste product, so we are obviously hoping people will be quite happy to donate it. Otherwise it would just go in the bin." The site for the bank will be selected to give the centre the widest ethnic mix of mothers to allow the collection of a wide range of tissue types.

Glasgow's Queen Mother's serves mainly the west of the city and beyond, while the Princess Royal, at the Royal Infirmary, caters largely for mothers in the north and east.

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