Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Playing through cancer

From the Globe and Mail:
Two decades ago, a diagnosis of chronic myelogenous leukemia was a death sentence.

But new drugs introduced in the past six years mean that Toronto Maple Leafs forward Jason Blake and thousands of others with CML can expect to live full and active lives.

In fact, experts say the successes with CML could hold promise as a model for treating other cancers. Because scientists have identified the specific mutation that causes CML, they have developed drugs that target only the cancerous cells — an elusive goal for many cancer researchers.

"There's a lot of hope out there," says Hildy Dillon, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's vice-president for patient services and disease programs. "It's a very exciting area in terms of cancer research." ...more

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