e white and red blood cell counts sustained a normal count for eight months. The most crucial aspect of this study was the remarkable speed of the drug. About 30 patients who received treatment regained normal blood count within the first month of treatment (McConnaughey 1-2). Unlike traditional, toxic chemotherapy remedies, which kill both cancerous and healthy cells, STI-571 specifically targets an enzyme found only in leukemia cells, meaning patients suffer minimal side effects. An article recently published in The Lancet by Lalit Kumar and Subhash C. Gulati states that CML is known to scientists as the defect with the “Philadelphia chromosome.” The Philadelphia chromosome results when chromosomes 9 and 22 exchange genetic material. This translocation fuses two genes that shouldn’t be together. This fusion releases an enzyme that spurs lethal growth of white blood cells, usually beginning in adulthood. Kumar and Gulati state that STI-571 inhibits the activity of this enzyme, rapidly killing the leukemia cells. The drug only targets the cancer cells because only those cells contain the specific enzyme that STI-571 inhibits. Dr. Moshe Talpaz of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas has some intense feelings about STI-571. “It’s fantastic! These people who have been treated with traditional methods and failed still have hope. Although their doctors said they didn’t have long to live, now most are feeling well with good blood-cell counts” (984-985). Author Bradley Somer states that current therapeutic options for CML include hydroxyurea, interferon alpha and allogeneic bone marrow transplant. The first of these two treatments only delay the diseases progression and the bone marrow transplants are merely used as an attempt to cure patients under the age of 50 (OncoLink). The Journal of American Medical Association states that standard theory has much more severe side e...
