Probably nothing new here for regular readers, but below is a link to a two page report regarding Pharmacyclics release of the results from their Phase II trial investigation of their oral agent ibrutinib, sponsored by the Hematology Branch, National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health and reported to the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting in Washington on the 11th of April.
news-medical.net/news/20130...
Some quotes:
"Ibrutinib was highly efficacious as a single agent in patients with untreated, relapsed and unresponsive CLL, irrespective of their del 17p status," Dr. Wiestner said."
"Ibrutinib demonstrated rapid and sustained disease control in blood, lymph nodes, spleen and bone marrow. After 6 months, 95 percent of patients experienced a reduction in lymph node size and all showed reduction in spleen enlargement, with a median reduction of 55 percent. In 26 patients, for whom a bone marrow biopsy was done, tumor infiltration decreased by 82 percent.
The Progression Free Survival probability for these patients at 12 months was estimated to be 94 percent. Most adverse events were mild and manageable and included diarrhea, fatigue and rash, severe events occurred in less than 13 percent of patients."
Still not a cure and not likely to be available for quite a while unless you live in the right place and meet the prerequisites to join a trial...