Washington, Oct 21: A recent discovery by scientists suggests that the most effective treatment for leukemia may rely on a combination of targeted drugs, rather than a single miracle drug.
An anti-leukemia drug called imatinib is currently the most popular therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).
CML is associated with the abnormal fusion of a portion of chromosome 21 with a cell growth-promoting enzyme called ABL, which makes the enzyme perpetually active.
Imatinib slows down the spread of cancer by blocking the enzyme''s activity.
However, the drug doesn''t work in everyone and resistance often develops, most likely because the drug only targets mature cells, leaving self-renewing cancer stem cells behind.