Disappointments in treating acute leukemia in the elderly

Article Abstract:

Acute myelogenous leukemia may be more severe in the elderly and may require different treatment strategies. Remission rates of 80% are common in AML patients, but this appears to be true only in young patients. Older patients are less likely to receive chemotherapy because their doctors believe it will be toxic and result in only brief remissions. One hypothesis for the severity of the disease in the elderly is that they can not easily recover from the drop in white blood cells called neutrophils that occurs during chemotherapy. Granulocyte colony stimulating factors (G-CSF and GM-CSF) can stimulate the growth of neutrophils, and these factors have been used in elderly AML patients. Even though the treatment hastened the recovery of neutrophils, it did not reduce the incidence of infections or prolong survival. Some researchers have found that elderly patients have no normal bone marrow cells left. If so, scientists will have to find ways to make the leukemic cells function well enough to protect the patients from infection, which is a major cause of death in AML patients.

Care and treatment, Editorial, Usage, Drug therapy, Chemotherapy, Aged patients, Elderly patients, Acute leukemia, Promyelocytic, Acute myelocytic leukemia, Colony-stimulating factors (Physiology), Colony-stimulating factors, Neutropenia

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Predicting progression- ZAP-70 in CLL

Article Abstract:

A comparison between a flow-cytometry assay for zeta-associated protein (ZAP-70) and the mutational status of IgVH genes in predicting the time to first treatment in a large series of patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) in reported. The ZAP-70 level as measured by flow cytometry was apparently better than the mutational states at predicting the need for treatment.

Flow cytometry, Proteins, Chronic lymphocytic leukemia

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Inheritance of a cancer-associated MLH1 germ-line epimutation

Article Abstract:

The families of two women were studied to find evidence for the epimutation that was transmitted from a mother to her son but was erased in his spermatozoa. The findings demonstrate a novel pattern of inheritance of cancer susceptibility and are consistent with transgenerational epigenetic inheritance.

Cancer, Cancer genetics, Cancer cells, Spermatozoa, Sperm

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