Acute Myeloid Leukemia News and Research

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Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is a rapidly progressing cancer of the blood characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of immature blast cells in the bone marrow. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society estimates that over 13,000 new cases of AML were diagnosed and approximately 9,000 deaths from AML occurred in the U.S. during 2007. AML is generally a disease of older adults, and the median age of a patient diagnosed with AML is about 67 years. A majority of elderly patients are not considered candidates for standard induction therapy or decline therapy, resulting in an acute need for new treatment options.

EpiCept: Positive outcome from Ceplene Phase III trial in patients with AML

EpiCept Corporation today announced the Company has identified a statistically significant survival benefit in a subgroup of Acute Myeloid Leukemia patients in its previous Phase III trial with Ceplene administered with low-dose interleukin-2.

3 Mar 2011

Less-toxic combination of immune-based drug and chemotherapy drug produce long-term remissions in CLL

New research shows that a less-toxic combination of a targeted immune-based drug and a chemotherapy drug can produce long-term remissions in some chronic lymphocytic leukemia patients. And it does so without increasing the risk of later therapy-related myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia, which can often occur with a three-drug combination used to treat these patients.

25 Feb 2011

EpiCept 2010 fourth quarter net loss is $0.06 per share

EpiCept Corporation today announced operating and financial results for the fourth quarter and full year ended December 31, 2010, and provided an update on its key business initiatives.

24 Feb 2011

FDA grants Fast Track designation to Sunesis' vosaroxin for treatment of AML

Sunesis Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that vosaroxin, the Company's lead drug candidate, has been granted Fast Track designation by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the potential treatment of relapsed or refractory acute myeloid leukemia in combination with cytarabine.

23 Feb 2011

AML patient raises awareness in community about national stem cell registry

By the age of 28, Dana Severson was already an Iraq war veteran, an accomplished clinical engineer, a wife and mother. Days following her daughter Genevieve's first birthday, Severson was faced with a reality that would turn her life upside down. After several weeks of experiencing severe headaches and extreme exhaustion, the young mother was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

16 Feb 2011

Treg therapy ensures success of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, without triggering GVHD

For blood cancer patients at high risk of relapse, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT), the transplantation of blood-forming stem cells, is one of best options for treatment and a potential cure. Unfortunately, the most common complication of HSCT is graft-versus-host disease (GVHD), a serious and often deadly post-transplant complication that occurs when the newly transplanted donor cells recognize the recipient's own cells as foreign and react by attacking the cells in the patient's body.

4 Feb 2011

Inovio announces regulatory approval for Phase 2 trial to treat leukemia using new vaccine delivery device

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today the regulatory approval of a Phase 2 clinical trial to treat leukemia utilizing Inovio's new ELGEN 1000 automated vaccine delivery device.

31 Jan 2011

FDA grants BioSante Orphan Drug designation for Melanoma Cancer Vaccine

BioSante Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the receipt of Orphan Drug designation for its Melanoma Cancer Vaccine in the treatment of stage IIb to IV melanoma, from the FDA's Office of Orphan Products Development. Melanoma is the most deadly form of skin cancer.

25 Jan 2011

Researchers reveal how genetic mutation contributes to cancer development

Scientists around the world have been hot on the trail of a genetic mutation closely associated with some brain cancers and leukemia since the mutation's discovery in 2008. The hunt is now yielding fruit. In the Jan. 18, 2011 issue of Cancer Cell, researchers reveal how the mutation contributes to cancer development and suggest potential ways to counter its effects.

21 Jan 2011

Quebec reimburses VIDAZA for treatment of blood cancer

Quebec patients with serious blood cancers (intermediate-2 and high-risk myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia) now have publicly funded access to a new innovative therapy, VIDAZA® (azacitidine). Following a priority review and subsequent positive recommendation from the Conseil du medicament, patients now have the potential to significantly extend survival.

18 Jan 2011

Cyclacel opens enrollment of sapacitabine Phase 3 trial for AML

Cyclacel Pharmaceuticals, Inc., today announced that it has opened enrollment of the SEAMLESS pivotal Phase 3 trial for the Company's sapacitabine oral capsules as a front-line treatment of elderly patients aged 70 years or older with newly diagnosed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) who are not candidates for intensive induction chemotherapy.

11 Jan 2011

Celator, Cephalon extend cancer research agreement

Celator Pharmaceuticals today announced that it has agreed with Cephalon, Inc. to extend an existing research agreement into the next phase of development. The research agreement provides for the utilization of Celator's proprietary technology in an ongoing drug development and life-cycle management program at Cephalon.

10 Jan 2011

New mechanisms of resistance to chemotherapy among leukemia patients

The interplay between a major tumor-suppressing gene, a truncated chromosome and two sets of microRNAs provides a molecular basis for explaining the less aggressive form of chronic lymphocytic leukemia, an international team of researchers reports today in the Jan. 4 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

10 Jan 2011

SuperGen initiates enrollment in first human trial of SGI-110 in MDS and AML

SuperGen, Inc. today announced that it has enrolled the first patient in its first in human study of SGI-110, a second-generation hypomethylating agent, in patients with intermediate-2 or high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) or acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

5 Jan 2011

Therapies to target self-renewing population of chemotherapy-resistant cells needed

Leukemia patients whose cancers express higher levels of genes associated with cancer stem cells have a significantly poorer prognosis than patients with lower levels of the genes, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. The finding is among the first to show that the cancer stem cell hypothesis - which posits that some cancers spring from and are replenished by a small, hardy population of self-renewing cells - can be used to predict outcomes in a large group of patients and one day to tailor treatments in the clinic.

22 Dec 2010

High LSC scores associated with adverse outcomes in AML patients

In an examination of leukemic stem cells (LSC), researchers have found that patients with acute myeloid leukemia who had higher activity of certain LSC genes had worse overall, event-free and relapse-free survival, according to a study in the December 22/29 issue of JAMA.

21 Dec 2010

EpiCept receives Israeli Ministry of Health approval for Ceplene

EpiCept Corporation today announced that the Israeli Ministry of Health has approved the marketing application for Ceplene®, indicated for remission maintenance and prevention of relapse in adult patients with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in first remission. Megapharm Ltd. is EpiCept's partner in Israel and upon Ministry of Health approval of labeling and other technical matters the company is expected to launch Ceplene® in the first quarter of 2011.

21 Dec 2010

Study broadens understanding of role of IDH1 and IDH2 mutations in AML

Agios Pharmaceuticals, the leading biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering and developing novel drugs in the rapidly emerging field of cancer metabolism, today announced the publication of a paper in Cancer Cell that illuminates the mechanism by which 2-hydroxyglutarate (2HG), and the mutations in the metabolic genes IDH1 and IDH2 that produce it, may be driving the growth of tumors in patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).

15 Dec 2010

NCI initiates crolibulin/cisplatin combination Phase II trial in anaplastic thyroid cancer

EpiCept Corporation today announced that the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has initiated a Phase II trial with crolibulinTM (EPC2407). The trial will assess the drug's efficacy and safety in combination with cisplatin in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC). CrolibulinTM is a vascular disruption and apoptosis inducing agent that has demonstrated potent anti-tumor activity in both preclinical and early clinical studies.

15 Dec 2010

Stem cell therapy can reduce risk of acute leukemia in affected individuals

Some adults and children with acute leukemia could benefit from certain transplants of blood stem cells, but the benefits are not equal across all cases of leukemia, according to a new review of 15 studies.

13 Dec 2010