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Targeted cancer treatment: resisting arrest

Nature Medicine volume 12, pages 1125–1126 (2006)Cite this article

Many individuals with chronic myeloid leukemia have benefited from the drug imatinib (Gleevec)—but if they are taken off the drug, relapse occurs. Two mathematical models to explain this phenomenon, one described in this issue, have come to different conclusions (1181–1184).

To understand the reasons for the relapse, it is important to study the dynamics of CML under therapy. In an attempt to elucidate those dynamics, a previous study6 argued that treatment affects only differentiated tumor cells, but not the leukemic stem cells that are thought to maintain and drive the disease. Hence, the cancer cannot be eradicated by the drug. By contrast, a study in this issue7 argues that elimination of the cancer is in principle possible because leukemic stem cells might be susceptible to imatinib when they are in an activated state (Fig. 1b).

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Figure 1: Dynamics of CML treatment with imatinib.

Kim Caesar

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  1. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, 321 Steinhaus Hall, University of California, Irvine, 92697, California, USA

    Dominik Wodarz

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  1. Dominik Wodarz
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Wodarz, D. Targeted cancer treatment: resisting arrest. Nat Med 12, 1125–1126 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1006-1125

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1006-1125

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