Hello Cheryl-Anne, Since you have stated that you know all there is to know about CML, I will leave it to you then to find out the answers to the questions you have asked. I certainly do not want to appear as "teaching" you.
In your post, you said there are good stories as well as bad stories about BMT so obviously you agree there is a risk. If parents do not want to take on that risk, I find that very acceptable in the light of drug therapies for CML already in place to keep the disease at bay. The risk factor is what others have tried to tell you. The recent European consensus article placed overall survival for children at 10 years at 65-70% which I do not find that different from adult stats. What drives doctors to find a cure? It certainly is not our enthusiasm about a cure. Trace back CML history. Patients were dying from BMTs or lack of donors. This spurred doctors on to drug therapy and along came Interferon which really was a milestone since it did bring CCR to a minority of patients. However, since it did not bring CCR to the majority, patients still died and then came Gleevec which brings 86% of patients into remission. Cast your mind to what the doctors then did- try to find a cure? No, Gleevec resistance developed, patients began progressing to advanced phases and as you know their lives are then at stake. So, came very fast research and Sprycel and AMN. Always, the aim has been to save lives as first priority. Now, I can guarantee, the T315I inhibitors will be next for patients who fail Sprycel and AMN. More lives will be saved. And majority of patients would like to see this happen because one always wants backup drugs in case of drug resistance and relapse. So, it is the PLIGHT of patients driving the CML research. I see all this as steps to the ultimate drug cure and if a cure does not happen, at least patients can continue to live lives in remission. This has nothing to do with our HOPES. We, one and all, hope for a cure, that is obvious. Whats the point of getting frustrated over it? I will say this, however, it is the ease of the research that also drives research. Knowing how Gleevec binded, it was far easier to find out mechanism of Gleevec resistance and design BMS and AMN than to try to find a CML drug cure. That is just the way of things. We hear the research success stories, we never hear of the research failures, doctors may be working on quiescent cells and drugs to kill such cells, there is not any big breakthrough, yet. Research in any field is a long process. Have a good day. Anjana --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
