New drug targeting treatment — Glivec

Abstract

This review evaluates the role of Glivec in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia and other malignant tumors. Preclinical and clinical evidence showed that Glivec demonstrated a potent and specific inhibition on BCR-ABL positive leukemias and other malignant tumors in which overexpression of c-kit and PDGFR-β played a major role in their pathogenesis. Glivec has induced complete hematologic responses in up to 98% of patients evaluated in clinical trials. It’s a very successful drug that supported the idea of targeted therapy through inhibition of tyrosine kinases. Although it’s still in the early stages of clinical development and the resistance to Glivec remains to be a problem needed further study, a great deal has been learned from these research and observation. And with the increasing data, molecular targeting therapy will play much more important role in the treatment of malignant tumors. With the better understanding of the pathogenesis of malignant tumors, well-designed drugs targeting the specific molecular abnormalities with higher efficacy and lower side effect will benefit numerous patients with malignant tumors.