The Amazing New Hope For Leukemia Patients

(Written by Sr. writer Jill Mckellan, www.Lazarex.com)

Have you heard of arsenic being used to save lives before?  No, well that’s about to change.  Arsenic, which is typically associated with death, has shown substantial positive effects on the survival of those who are diagnosed with acute promyelocytic leukemia – also referred to as APL.

Highlights of the Study
The study was conducted by Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, but involved numerous centers that participated to discover these great results.  Can you imagine the excitement at discovering how something that has been termed deadly for so long could be the key to life for those people who have APL?  This is the type of hope and courage that is inspiring and keeps everybody actively fighting to find a cure for cancer.  It shows us that the best solutions may be things that are sitting right under our noses.

The study has proven some exciting things and has provided some solid facts on APL that could lead to hope in fighting that form of leukemia.

• The study showed that arsenic trioxide (As203) is not only highly effective for patients with relapsed APL.  It benefits patients right away.  This study is the first of its kind to give the medical community that information.
• Patients who go into remission from APL with standard treatment (chemotherapy; plus ATRA) often fall relapse.  According to Bayard L. Powell, MD and Professor of Hematology and Oncology, “Arsenic trioxide is then used to get them back into remission, often followed by a bone marrow transplant to try to cure the patient.”  In the study, they used arsenic as an early consolidation therapy.  This took place after the initial standard treatment.  The approach was claimed to be highly effective and decreased the chances of the APL leaving remission status.
• APL accounts for approximately 14% of acute myeloid leukemia cases and is present most frequently in young adults.  It also has a very high risk of causing severe bleeding complications that could lead to death from bleeding that goes into the brain.
• National Cancer Institute funds researchers with the Cancer and Leukemia Group B.  The use of arsenic trioxide earlier dramatically increased the survival rate.
• Individuals who have high white blood cell counts at the time of diagnosis have a worse prognosis than those who do not and carry a higher risk of early death during the initial treatment phase.  Even when they go into remission they are more likely to relapse and if that does happen, the arsenic trioxide is the preferable treatment to force the remission to come back.
• Current APL treatment has involved a combination of ATRA plus chemotherapy to induce remission.  After that, additional “consolidation” chemotherapy was used to strengthen and maintain the remission.  This approach brings complete transmission approximately 90% of the time.   That other 10% has a better chance when arsenic trioxide is tried.

The conclusion
The overall outcome of the study showed that event free survival was better for those patients who received the arsenic trioxide consolidation therapy.  The rate of event free survival for the group that received it was 80% after three years.  The group that didn’t receive the arsenic trioxide treatment had an event free survival rate of 63%.  Those results were deemed accurate regardless of the initial prognosis based on the white blood cell count and certain other risk factors.

The arsenic test group also had better results when it came to their relapse rates and survival.  There were 196 participants who received a minimum of one dose of arsenic after their initial treatment.  Only 4 of those participants relapsed within three years.

There were 19 patients (8%) who didn’t make it past the initial treatment and didn’t receive the opportunity to receive the arsenic treatment.

If you get excited at the possibilities that clinical trials can bring to the cancer arena you should visit www.Lazarex.org and read about their mission and goals.  They help qualified candidates get into clinical trial treatments.  It’s those treatments that make the difference in finding out what can be done to eradicate cancer.  Without those types of efforts, substances that have been around us for a long time, such as arsenic, would not get the opportunity to show their positive side.  Remission from APL is definitely a positive!