Imatinib Could Cause Tumour Regression

The study has implications for the way cancer, and particularly Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia (CML), is treated. Imatinib use in combination with other autophagy-inducing drugs could potentially rapidly reduce the severity of a tumour.

Imatinib was designed to target a specific enzyme in CML, which disrupts the cell death pathway in cancer cells; thereby allowing them to multiply excessively. Hermann M Schätzl and colleagues now reveal that treatment with the drug results in the production of ring-shaped structures in the cell fluid that indicate the formation of autophagosomes - the structures essential for autophagy. Importantly, these structures are detected in cell lines from different tissues, providing hope that Imatinib may promote tumour regression in a variety of cancers. Furthermore, the authors show that this effect is dose-dependent, which has significant implications for the clinical application of the drug.

Author contact:

Hermann M Schätzl (Technical University of Munich, Germany)
E-mail: schaetzl@lrz.tum.de

Editorial contact:

Rachel Gonzaga (Leukemia, London, UK)
E-mail: r.gonzaga@nature.com

Abstract available online.

(C) Leukemia press release.

Message posted by: Trevor M. D'Souza