Cancer Treatment Today

Recent literature suggests that a subgroup of Hairy Cell Leukemia(HCL), sometimes called Variant Hairy Cell(HCL-V)  may in fact be a different type of Lymphoma and not Hairy Cell, and that it may respond to rituximab to a much higher extent than common Hairy Cell does. It is what was called Leukemic Reticuloendotheliosis in the past. It accounts for approximately 0.4% of chronic lymphoid malignancies and 10% of all HCl cases. In contrast to HCl-C,

Lay Summary: There is now evidence that GLeevec is very effective in Philadelphia chromosome positive ALL. Philadelphia-positive ALL is a very difficult disease to treat successfully. In the recent past, the standard approach was to use daunorubicin/vincristine/prednisone-based induction therapy to achieve remission and then, if the patient was a reasonable candidate and a donor could be found, to perform an allogeneic transplant. Now, the use of

Rituximab has been shown to prolong survival when used therapeutically with chemotherapy in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia(CLL). Rituximab, the mAb targeting CD20, was approved by the US FDA for patients with relapsed low-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It is counterintuitive why Rituxan works in CLL. Relatively low levels of CD20 are expressed on CLL B cells, compared to normal B or neoplastic B cells of other lymphomas. In addition, soluble CD20 has