IS IMBRUICA KEMO ?

[fossicker]

As far as I am concerned the answer is no, but my doctor and my CLL specialist just confuse the issue by saying it is, WHY do they do this ?.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

Cancer drug treatments get colloquially called Chemo. You'll even see Imbruvica tablets sometimes included in a package labelled chemo. Strictly, chemotherapy works by damaging cancer cell DNA, so when it tries to divide, it doesn't copy properly and auto-destruct cellular mechanisms are triggered causing programmed cell death (apoptosis).

Imbruvica and other targeted small molecule drugs work by inhibiting some 'stay alive' cellular pathways, or changing their behaviour, so that the CLL cells become more vulnerable to dying through other mechanisms. They don't damage the CLL DNA. They are chemicals however, as is everything around us - including ourselves.

Nearly 100 years ago, our body chemicals were calculated to be worth 84 cents by Dr. Charles H. Mayo. Nowadays we are worth MUCH more - about $1.00! From the Mayo Clinic: liblog.mayo.edu/2010/01/14/...

Neil

[Lily_Pad_Master in reply to AussieNeil]

With all the Acalabrutinib, Obinutuzumab, and Venetoclax in me, I dare say more than a buck’s worth of chemicals could be recovered from me!

[Lola69]

Imbruvica is a target therapy.

No chemo >>> Imbruvica unlike chemo does not damage healthy cells.

Tell your Dr. to read!

[J_88 in reply to Lola69]

Agreed

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Lola69]

Ibrutinib kills all B cells, malignant and fully functional... there are no treatments yet that can selective kill only the malignant cells, but Cirmtuzumab targeted ar ROR1 might... but it's still in early phase trials...

~chris

[J_88]

It's not: Imbruvica™ is not a chemotherapy drug but one of what are termed "targeted therapies." ... This information is used to create a targeted therapy to attack the cancer cells without damaging the normal cells, thus leading to fewer side effects.

chemocare.com/chemotherapy/...

[BeckyLUSA]

My doc calls it chemo light. It is not designed to kill healthy cells, but some are negatively affected. It does do collateral damage, just not nearly as much as chemo.

[Graham2222]

No!

[Hoffy]

Chemo is short for Chemical therapy. Technically any cancer drug is Chemo but what is typically referred to as Chemo is Cell killing chemicals also know as CytoToxic Chemo Therapy.

Imbruvica is not cytotoxic.

Be well,

Hoffy

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Hoffy]

Imbruvica (ibrutinib) and all novel agents are cytotoxic.. they kill B cells... a process of apoptosis...

In hink you are confusing cytotoxicity with myelotoxicity, which is the damage to the bone marrow. Some chemo in CLL has been well proven tobe myelotoxic, it appears that Imbruvica (ibrutinib) and other novel agents may not be myelotoxic... but still pretty early.

~chris

[Hoffy in reply to Cllcanada]

Yes, but target therapies do not destroy DNA to accomplish this apoptosis.

Correct?

Hoffy

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Hoffy]

No, not directly, they block signals on the BCR receptor pathway, venetolclax works in other ways...

Chemo works in the B cell cycle in the clone process primarily...

This does not prevent gene mutations however, since all these novel agents can and do fail.. the cells are altered by mutation.

~chris

[Lola69 in reply to Cllcanada]

Depressing read

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero in reply to Hoffy]

Here is how Fludarabine works...

Fludarabine phosphate is a synthetic fluorinated analog of the purine nucleoside antiviral agent vidarabine (ara-A).

Unlike vidarabine, fludarabine phosphate is resistant to deamination by adenosine deaminase. Fludarabine phosphate is a water-soluble prodrug that is rapidly dephosphorylated to 2-fluoro-vidarabine (2F-ara-A). 2F-ara-A is actively transported into cells and is then rephosphorylated via deoxycytidine kinase to the active triphosphate derivative 2F-ara-ATP.1 2F-ara-ATP competitively inhibits DNA synthesis via inhibition of DNA polymerase, ribonucleotide reductase, DNA primase, and DNA ligase.1,5 2F-ara-ATP prevents elongation of DNA strands through direct incorporation into DNA as a false nucleotide.

Partial inhibition of RNA polymerase II and resultant reduction in protein synthesis may also occur.

Cytotoxicity occurs primarily in the S-phase of cell division; fludarabine is also active against non-proliferating cells. Fludarabine has been shown to induce apoptosis in vitro.

bccancer.bc.ca/drug-databas...

Pretty cool eh?

~chris