New Drug to Treat Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia

In a new finding, researchers address the basic problem of treating chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Doctors at Dartmouth-Hitchcock's Norris Cotton Cancer Center (NCCC) have come up with a combination of drugs to potentially fight the disease.

CLL is present in the blood in circulation and in the lymph nodes and bone marrow. It is easy to eliminate in the blood circulation, but the disease strikes back due to resistant CLL cells present in the lymph nodes and bone marrow. CLL is a disease that gradually gets worse and is the second-most common type of leukemia in adults. It rarely occurs in kids.

To treat this disease, researchers have come up with a new drug combination that attacks the resistant CLL cells.

"We have been studying the mechanism in the cancer cells that causes the resistance to treatment," Alan Eastman, the senior researcher on the team and a professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, said in a press statement. "And that in turn, led us to find drugs that target the resistance."

The effective drug combination consists of gossypol plus navitoclax to damage and kill the CLL cells.

The two drugs have been previously given to the patients separately but never together. "Now we have what we think is the most promising drug combination so far for the treatment of CLL," says Eastman.

The CLL cells present in the lymph nodes contain a high level of protein known as BCL-X. This protein is inhibited by gossypol, and allows navitoclax to work in an effective manner to kill cancer cells.

The study was published in the journal Leukemia.