Acute myeloid leukemia

PubMed, the Internet portal of biomedical and life sciences literature, indexed an interesting article, entitled “Long-term remission in BCR/ABL-positive AML-M6 patient treated with Imatinib Mesylate.” (Leuk Res. 2006 Aug 14). Authors are Pompetti F, Spadano A, Sau A et al., from the Molecular Biology Laboratory, Department of Transfusional Medicine, Ospedale Civile ‘Spirito Santo’, Pescara, Italy. BCR/ABL-positive acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a rare disease, characterized by a poor prognosis, with resistance to induction chemotherapy and frequent relapses in responsive patients. The authors report a case of BCR/ABL-positive AML-M6 who, after relapse, was treated with Imatinib Mesylate (600mg/die) and within 4 months achieved a cytogenetic and molecular complete response. To access the abstract of the article, click here.