Patients with treatment-resistant CLL respond positively to stem cell transplants
Saturday, July 3, 2010 - 04:07
in Health & Medicine
Allogeneic (donor-derived) stem cell transplant (alloSCT) may be a promising option for patients with treatment-resistant chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), regardless of the patient's underlying genetic abnormalities, according to the results of a study published online today in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology. About 15,000 new CLL cases were diagnosed in the United States in 2009 and about 4,000 deaths were documented (according to the American Cancer Society). While survival rates for leukaemia have generally improved in the last decade, patients with rare, more aggressive forms of CLL do not respond well to standard chemotherapy-based and targeted treatments and often die within a few years of diagnosis...