A variation of an acne drug may be a potential treatment for acute leukemia according to researchers at Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center . In this type of leukemia , white blood cells turn malignant at an immature stage of development . It is an uncommon cancer, afflicting about 1,000 Americans a year, in which certain cells in the bone marrow become malignant before they have matured into fully functioning white blood cells. The acne drug may trigger these cells to divide and mature and then die a natural death . The drug is known as tretinoin and is in a class of chemicals called retinoic acid and is similar to vitamin A. The form of leukemia that appears to respond is acute promyelocytic leukemia . People with this type of leukemia have a piece of chromosome 17 that has reattached to chromosome 15 .
A variation of an acne drug may be a potential treatment for acute leukemia according to researchers at Memorial Sloan - Kettering Cancer Center . In this type of leukemia , white blood cells turn malignant at an immature stage of development . The acne drug may trigger these cells to divide and mature and then die a natural death . The drug is known as tretinoin and is in a class of chemicals called retinoic acid and is similar to vitamin A. The form of leukemia that appears to respond is acute promyelocytic leukemia . People with this type of leukemia have a piece of chromosome 17 that has reattached to chromosome 15 .