The BCR/ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate (Gleevec, STI571; Novartis, Basel, Switzerland) has shown remarkable efficacy in the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), with a high proportion of patients achieving complete cytogenetic responses (CCRs). However, it is not clear whether remissions will be durable and whether imatinib mesylate can eliminate the malignant primi...

PURPOSE Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) can be responsive to T-cell-mediated immunity. K562/granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF) is a GM-CSF producing vaccine derived from a CML cell line that expresses several CML-associated antigens. A pilot study was developed to determine if K562/GM-CSF immunotherapy could improve clinical responses to imatinib mesylate (IM) in patients ...

Imatinib mesylate (Gleevec, STI571), a selective inhibitor of a restricted number of tyrosine kinases, has been effectively used for the treatment of Philadelphia chromosome-positive leukemias and gastrointestinal stromal tumors. Imatinib may also directly influence immune cells. Suppressive as well as stimulating effects of this drug on CD4(+) and CD8(+) T lymphocytes or dendritic cells have b...

The Philadelphia (Ph) chromosome, which occurs as a result of a translocation between chromosomes 9 and 22, generates a BCR-ABL fusion oncogene in leukaemia cells. The BCR-ABL fusion protein has constitutive tyrosine kinase activity. The development of imatinib mesylate (STI571, Gleevec®), a potent and selective BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitor, represents an important advance in cancer therap...

Imatinib mesylate is highly effective in newly diagnosed chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), but BCR/ABL (breakpoint cluster region/abelson murine leukemia)-positive progenitors persist in most patients with CML treated with imatinib mesylate, indicating the need for novel therapeutic approaches. In this study, we have used the murine CML-like myeloproliferative disorder as a platform to characteri...

Fludarabine-containing combinations have additive cell killing against leukemic blasts in vitro. It has also been shown that imatinib mesylate combined with fludarabine or cladribine had an additive effect on CML CFU-GM cells. In this regard, we aimed to investigate the effect of fludarabine-imatinib mesylate combination against CML blastic phase cell lines K562 and Meg-01. XTT test was perform...

Resistance to the Ableson protein tyrosine (Abl) kinase inhibitor imatinib mesylate has become a critical issue for patients in advanced phases of chronic myelogenous leukemia. Imatinib-resistant tumor cells develop, in part, as a result of point mutations within the Abl kinase domain. As protein kinase B (Akt) plays a pivotal role in Abl oncogene-mediated cell survival, we hypothesize that con...

We describe a patient who had a metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) after previous failed extensive therapy, including multiple surgeries and hepatic artery embolization. Within a few months of starting administration of imatinib mesylate, the patient exhibited a clinical response with grade 3 neutropenia, when pulmonary tuberculosis developed. A c-kit mutation in exon 11 was detec...

Imatinib mesylate is the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor developed and approved for the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). In the past few years development of resistance towards imatinib mesylate has been reported. To overcome this problem a series of phenyl amino pyrimidine derivatives have been designed, prepared and evaluated for ant...

Imatinib mesylate is a selective protein kinase inhibitor, highly active in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs). Cutaneous toxicity, a well-recognized, dose-related side-effect of imatinib mesylate, has been reported in 18 to 69% of patients with GIST treated with doses ranging from 400 to 800 mg once a day. In this case-report a severe skin ...