Blood Cancer &
 Leukemia

Leukemia Cancer News - Return to Menu

Tom Snyder Battling Leukemia

by Charlie Amter
April 18, 2005 - Former late-night player Tom Snyder has a new battle on his hands--and this time it's not Conan or Craig.

The folksy former NBC newsman and CBS talk-show emcee has announced he has been diagnosed with chronic, but treatable, lymphocytic leukemia.

Snyder, who once held the The Late Late Show host post, was optimistic about his chances.

"When I was a kid leukemia was a death sentence. Now, my doctors say it's treatable! With pills or chemotherapy or a combination of both," he said Friday on his Website, www.colortini.com. He said that, if caught early, patients can live up to 30 years.

"I ain't looking for thirty years," he said, "but fifteen more would be nice!"

Snyder, who is scheduled to meet again with doctors May 4, said he first became aware that something was wrong when he started gaining weight and having night sweats.

"I don't eat that much but I have gained weight--about 50 pounds since I quit smoking more than five years ago," the Emmy-winning broadcaster said.

Snyder, who will turn 69 next month, got his start in the entertainment world in radio--landing a job as a news correspondent at WRIT AM radio in his native Milwaukee in 1955.

Older viewers remember him for his nearly decade-long run as a host on NBC's pioneering The Tomorrow Show from the mid-1970s into the early 1980s and his subsequent stint on CNBC, where he regularly encouraged viewers to "fire up a colortini [a fictional cocktail], sit back, relax, and watch the pictures, now, as they fly through the air."

For younger viewers, however, Snyder is known as the old guy who preceded Craig Kilborn on CBS' The Late Late Show. Snyder, personally tapped for the The Late Late Show gig by David Letterman, stepped down in 1999, saying he was weary of the talk-show grind. Around the same time, he received a pacemaker to treat heart disease.

Ex-late show host has leukemia, his Web site says

April 19, 2005 - Tom Snyder, a late-night talk show fixture for years, has been diagnosed with leukemia.

Snyder announced on his Web site Friday that doctors have told him that he has chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

"When I was a kid leukemia was a death sentence. Now, my doctors say it's treatable! With pills or chemotherapy or a combination of both," he said.

Snyder, 68, says he had been low on stamina, felt bloated and gained about 50 pounds -- all symptoms that led him to seek tests. Coincidentally, he says, his younger brother also has been diagnosed with the same disease.

Snyder hosted NBC's "The Tomorrow Show" from 1973-82. He also had a four-year run on CBS' "The Late Late Show With Tom Snyder," which he left in 1999. The show was reformatted for new host Craig Kilborn.

Fund-raiser benefits family of teen who died from leukemia

ANTIOCH - Friends of a 17-year-old Antioch boy who died of a rare form of leukemia are staging a fund-raiser this weekend to help his family.

Steven Viramontes, who played football for Antioch High, was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia in March and died May 7.

A benefit and silent auction will be held 1 to 7 p.m. Sunday at Straw Hat Pizza, 3001 Delta Fair Blvd. The event will include live entertainment, a food and bake sale and face painting for children.

Organizers are asking local businesses for donations of services or products. In exchange for a donation, businesses will be listed in the benefit program as donors. To donate or to get more information, contact Marie Bowers at 706-7350.

Rosemount baseball plays on despite having MDS

05/04/2005 - This year the Rosemount Irish baseball team is off to a rough start. But they're still diving into the season, working hard to get out of their early slump and back to their winning ways.

Last year the Irish were the section champs and made their eighth appearance at State.

But this season, the team lost 8 starters to graduation. Only senior shortstop Chris Buss remains. On top of all that, the team has lost someone even more important. Their head coach Craig Kusick, who has worked for 15 years to build a winning program here at Rosemount, had to step down from coaching this year.

Now the Irish must play on while Kusick tries to recover from MDS, a blood disorder that can develop into leukemia.

Back in 1963 Kusick was in the big leagues. He played for the Minnesota Twins for 6 years from 1973 to 1979. Former Irish assistant coach and longtime friend Frank Senta says the players appreciate that experience.

Besides a proud tradition, there are many things here at Rosemount High School that stand because of Kusick, like the new press box and bleachers for the hometown fans. Kusick helped put together a big fundraiser to get them.

But now he's concentrating on keeping MDS from stealing another season from him.

Data directly support a pathogenetic model of acute leukemia

Medical Study News

15-Jul-2005 - Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is frequently caused by genetic alterations that affect transcription factors, such as AML1-ETO and mutations affecting genes involved in signal transduction pathways, such as FLT3.

Mutations in AML1-ETO and FLT3 are two of the most common genetic alterations seen in patients with AML, but neither mutation alone can cause leukemia in animal models. Thus, it seemed the collaboration of both mutations together were necessary for blood progenitor cells to become malignant.

In a study appearing online on July 14 in advance of print publication of the August 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Christian Buske and colleagues from Ludwig Maximillians University report that AML1-ETO cooperates with FLT3 to potently trigger rapid and aggressive acute leukemia in mice.

This data directly support a pathogenetic model of acute leukemia, which stipulates that an activating mutation in a signal transduction pathway and a mutation in a transcription factor are required for leukemogenesis. This insight into the collaboration of two complementary classes of oncogenes in AML has direct implications for therapeutic interventions as it forms the rationale to test signal transduction inhibitors in leukemias characterized by activating mutations of receptor tyrosine kinases.

http://www.jci.org/

Site Map | Acute Myelogenous Leukemia