Showing posts with label CML. Show all posts
Showing posts with label CML. Show all posts

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Nilotinib more efficiant over Imatinib for (Ph+ CML)....

Nilotinib (see structure) :

Nilotinib, in the form of the hydrochloride monohydrate salt, is a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, approved as Tasigna in USA and the EU for drug - resistant chronic myelogenous leukemia (June 2006), resistant to treatment with imatinib (Gleevec), another tyrosine kinase inhibitor currently used as a first-line treatment.

In a recently held large clinical trial, nilotinib demonstrated greater efficacy over the current gold standard treatment, imatinib, in adult patients with newly diagnosed Philadelphia chromosome-positive chronic myeloid leukaemia (Ph+ CML) in the chronic phase.

As per the claim by the researchers, in the first head-to-head study of these two oral treatments as initial therapy for this life-threatening leukaemia, nilotinib demonstrated statistically significant improvement over imatinib in key measures of effectiveness used in the trial. The trial showed that at 12 months, significantly fewer patients on nilotinib 300mg twice-daily progressed from the initial chronic phase of the disease to the later accelerated or blast crisis phases than those on imatinib 400mg once-daily. This demonstrates that nilotinib provided significantly better control of the disease compared to imatinib.

95% of patients with CML have an abnormality known as the Philadelphia chromosome. This chromosome produces a type of protein called Bcr-Abl, which is responsible for the overproduction of the cancerous white blood cells that are the main feature in Ph+ CML. Nilotinib is a potent and selective inhibitor of the Bcr-Abl protein, thereby inhibiting the production of these cancerous cells.

Ref : http://www.novartis.com/newsroom/media-releases/en/2009/1359764.shtml