This knowledge laid the foundation for the targeted cancer treatment revolution inaugurated
by imatinib (Gleevec ®), which has made another blood cancer, chronic myelogenous leukemia, a controllable, chronic disease for many patients.
Not exact matches
[12] It was marketed in 2001
by Novartis as
imatinib mesylate (Gleevec in the US, Glivec in Europe).
In the late 1990s, STI - 571 (
imatinib, Gleevec / Glivec) was identified
by the pharmaceutical company Novartis (then known as Ciba Geigy) in high - throughput screens for tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
In 2001
imatinib was approved for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia, a disease that is almost universally caused
by a single genetic mutation, known as the Philadelphia chromosome, and its resulting mutant protein.
It has been shown in
imatinib - resistant CML that drug resistance conferred
by mutations does not necessarily correlate with proliferative advantage and increased kinase activity.34 Other, non-activating mutations or drug - resistance mechanisms, might be acquired
by tumor cells.
These mutant kinases are attractive therapeutic targets, as demonstrated
by the efficacy of
imatinib in BCR - ABL — positive chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), 5 as well as in MPD associated with activating alleles involving PDGFRA or PDGFRB.2, 6,7 In addition, activating mutations in the FLT3 receptor tyrosine kinase are the most common genetic event in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and specific inhibitors of the FMS - like tyrosine kinase 3 (FLT3) have entered late - stage clinical trials.8 Although mutations in tyrosine kinases and in other genes have been identified in a subset of MPD and AML, in many cases the genetic events that contribute to the molecular pathogenesis of these diseases remain unknown.
This work, and that of colleagues Brian Druker and Novartis, led to the development of the kinase inhibitor
imatinib (Gleevec) as primary therapy for chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), and the discovery that
imatinib resistance is caused
by BCR - ABL kinase domain mutations.