New Drug Added to Arsenal Against CLL

By Rachael Myers Lowe, cancerpage.com

(March 20, 2008)-The Food and Drug Administration, Thursday, approved a new chemotherapy agent for use in patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia, a cancer of the blood.

Bendamustine hydrochloride (brand name TREANDA) packs a one-two punch against cancer cells; it attacks cancer cell DNA leading to cell death, and it also attacks the cancer cells when they try to divide.

The drug joins a long list of chemotherapy agents now used against CLL. Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is a slow growing disease characterized by the production of too many white blood cells that do not mature into infection-fighting cells. These leukemic blast cells crowd out mature white blood cells in the blood and bone marrow.

According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 15,000 Americans will be diagnosed with CLL this year. Patients diagnosed with CLL can live a long time with the slow moving disease and will often move through different chemotherapy treatments as the disease goes into remission, and then re-emerges.

In a clinical trial comparing it to chlorambucil, an existing standard treatment for CLL, bendamustine was given on days 1 and 2 of a 28-day treatment cycle, for 6 cycles. The median progression-free-survival time for the bendamustine group was 18 months, compared to 6 months for the chlorambucil group.

The bendamustine group reported more severe side effects and was more likely to need blood transfusions. The most common side effects included neutropenia, fever, thrombocytopenia, nausea, anemia, leucopenia, and vomiting.

The drug’s manufacturer, Cephalon, Inc, says it should have supplies of the drug to doctors in April.

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