|
Hi--sorry to hear of your situation and concerns.
The one drug you mention is probably Gleevec, which was a drug developed around 2000 or so to treat chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML)--a form of bone marrow cancer that is diagnosed in most patients by the appearance of what's known as the Philadelphia chromosome. This occurs when parts from two different chromosomes trade places, I believe. My nephew has been taking Gleevec since he was maybe 14 or so (he's now 27). He was diagnosed with CML in 2000 as a 13 year old and underwent a BMT that didn't succeed, but he managed to survive and by that point the drug was just coming out of clinical trials. He was I guess one of the very first pediatric patients to take it--and it's been a miracle drug for him. Now it is the front-line treatment for CML, I think. I had heard that they also use this drug for other types of cancers. It's supposed to stop the cells from manufacturing an aberrant protein or something like that so it's not as toxic as traditional chemo.
The other one I don't know. I think that before his bone marrow transplant my nephew might have been on a drug called hydroxyurea.
Hopefully others can chip in more information. Best wishes, Barbara
|