THE EXPANDING knowledge of signaling pathways regulating cell growth, cell cycle progression, and programmed cell death has led to a dramatic improvement in our understanding of the molecular events involved in cancer. This knowledge has allowed the identification of numerous targets for anticancer agents. As we move forward into an era of molecularly targeted therapeutics, it is worth reviewin...

We investigated whether imatinib (Gleevec®, Novartis), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, could improve functional outcome in experimental spinal cord injury. Rats subjected to contusion spinal cord injury were treated orally with imatinib for 5 days beginning 30 minutes after injury. We found that imatinib significantly enhanced blood-spinal cord-barrier integrity, hindlimb locomotor function, senso...

The 100-plus authors of “The Price of Drugs for Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML) is a Reflection of the Unsustainable Prices of Cancer Drugs: From the Perspective of a Large Group of CML Experts” [1] include a telling example of cancer drug pricing: imatinib (trade name Gleevec), a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) used to treat CML, was “initially priced at nearly $30,000 per year when it was rele...

In the present study, we address the issue of the discontinuation of imatinib mesylate (Gleevec) in chronic myelogenous leukemia with undetectable residual disease for more than 2 years. Twelve patients were included. The median duration of real-time quantitative-polymerase chain reaction (RTQ-PCR) negativity and imatinib therapy were, respectively, 32 months (range, 24-46 months) and 45 months...

most notably the completion of the sequencing of sevother diseases. Unfortunately, the remarkable success eral eukaryotic genomes and the advent of large-scale of the tyrosine kinase inhibitor Gleevec in treating transcript profiling. It is now possible to examine, in a chronic myelogenous leukemia and other cancers came single experiment, the effect of mutation in a particular too late for men...

The gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) is a rare type of tumor that expresses CD117 oncogene that can be detected by immunohistochemistry2. The most common sites of GISTs are stomach (70%), and small intestine (20%), while rectum is comprised in only 3% of the cases5. Although a rare condition, the GIST located in the distal rectum may require an abdominoperineal resection. There is no data ...

Pulmonary leukostasis is a rare but serious and often fatal complication of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in blast crisis and acute myeloid leukemia. Treatment options are limited for these patients. Imatinib mesylate (STI-571, Gleevec, Novartis) is a potent and selective inhibitor of the BCR-abl tyrosine kinase, the molecular abnormality that causes CML. The case of a 74-year-old man with a h...

Vascular smooth muscle cell (SMC) proliferation and migration are important events in the development of atherosclerosis. The low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein (LRP1) mediates suppression of SMC migration induced by platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF). Here we show that LRP1 forms a complex with the PDGF receptor (PDGFR). Inactivation of LRP1 in vascular SMCs of mice causes PDG...

We report a case of a primary malignant GIST of the liver metastatic to the lung in a 37 years-old man. The liver tumor showed histological feature of a GIST and expressed vimentin, and diffusely exhibited CD117. One year after the resection of the liver mass, the patient developed multiple small lung metastases which completely disappeared with STI-571 (imatinib mesylate--Gleevec) therapy. C.T...