A single round of treatment with an experimental new medicine appears to be highly effective against a rare form of leukemia and may help fight other kinds of blood cancer as well, says a study published today. The new drug was developed at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, Calif., where doctors tested it on patients with hairy cell leukemia. In almost every case, the medicine erased all signs of the disease. Hairy cell leukemia affects the white blood cells that make disease-fighting antibodies. Doctors are also testing the drug against chronic lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and cutaneous T cell lymphoma. The Scripps doctors concluded that the medicine, called 2-chlorodeoxyadenosine, or 2-CdA, ``may well be the drug of choice in the treatment of hairy cell leukemia.'' The study was directed by Dr. Lawrence D. Piro and published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In their study, doctors gave the drug to 12 patients. Of these, 11 have remained completely free of all signs of the disease for periods up to four years. The doctors cautioned that longer follow-up will be necessary before they can be sure they have actually cured the disease. Two other treatments for hairy cell leukemia have been developed in recent years. They are interferon and deoxycoformycin, a drug that is similar to 2-CdA. However, interferon is less effective, and both of those treatments produce serious side effects. By contrast, the only unwanted effect of 2-CdA was a few days of fever. Patients experienced no nausea, hair loss, rashes or other symptoms typical of cancer therapy. Also unlike other treatments, this one appears to work after a single seven-day course of therapy. The Scripps Clinic reached an agreement recently with Johnson &amp; Johnson's Ortho Pharmaceuticals to produce the drug, which is not yet approved for routine use.
A new drug developed at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation appears to be effective against hairy cell leukemia and may fight other types of blood cancer as well. The drug, called PD-1 inhibitor, was discovered by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, who were studying a rare form of leukemia, which is caused when white blood cells are Two other drugs, interferon and deoxycoformycin, similar to 2-CdA, have been developed in recent years but interferon is less effective and both produce side effect. The only unwanted effect of 2-CdA was a few days of fever.