Hi Melody, I am really sorry you may have developed T-cell lymphoma. A study was done by French doctors on Gleevec patients who took Gleevec after receiving Interferon and in those patients, there was a 3% increased incidence of secondary cancers but the only cancer the doctors found that occurred above the rate for a normal population was the increased incidence of prostrate cancer in males. However, other doctors have criticized this article saying that the patient cohort was above age 50 when prostrate cancer can occur in the normal population. There have been no studies on the development of secondary cancers in first-line Gleevec patients. However, from rat studies, it was found that rats on Gleevec could develop urogenital tract and kidney cancers. However, Novartis from their Gleevec clinical trials have not found any increased incidence of these cancers in Gleevec patients over and above the normal population.
Dr. Druker, however, advises urinalysis at 6 monthly intervals for Gleevec patients just to be on the safe side. And though my husband is 44 years of age, based on this French study, I have asked our doctor if he would check his prostrate surface antigen (PSA) levels and he recommended testing PSA levels every year. So, there has been no reported incidence of lymphoma occurence in Gleevec patients from the literature. However, I do know a young patient 29 years old, female, who did develop Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma during Gleevec therapy. She always had very low counts on Gleevec. Last I heard, she was receiving concomitant treatment for NHL and was on the BMS drug because Gleevec was no longer working for her. It will be a good idea to talk to Dr. Druker. He does answer personal e-mails. His e-mail is: [EMAIL PROTECTED] The article that studied secondary cancers in 2nd line Gleevec patients is to be found in Leukemia journal. Leukemia (2005) 19, 1689?1692. doi: 10.1038/sj.leu.2403874; published online 14 July 2005 Unexpected occurrence of second malignancies in patients treated with interferon followed by imatinib mesylate for chronic myelogenous leukemia L Roy, J Guilhot, G Martineau, R Larchée and F Guilhot 1.. Department of Oncology-Hematology and Cell Therapy, Clinical Research Centre, Poitiers, Cedex, France Correspondence: Professor F Guilhot, Department of Oncology- Hematology and Cell Therapy, CHU La Milétrie, 2 Rue de la Milétrie, 86021 Poitiers, Cedex, France. Fax: +33 5 49 44 38 63; E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Received 03 April 2005; Accepted 10 June 2005; Published online 14 July 2005. I wish you all the best in the treatment of CML and T-cell lymphoma. Have you had tests to show if the Gleevec is working? Any FISH or PCR tests? Best Wishes, Anjana caregiver to Roy --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
