Leukemia arsenic for blood cancer

Arsenic as therapy for rare leukemia

18/01/2013

For years, researchers have been testing the use of arsenic to treat cancer. Now Italian and German scientists have successfully treated a special form of blood cancer (leukemia) with the combination of arsenic trioxide and a vitamin A derivative.

According to the director of the Medical Clinic and Polyclinic I at the University Hospital Carl Gustav Carus in Dresden, Professor Gerhard Ehninger, to the news agency „dpa“, the treatment has eliminated the cancer in just six months. The renowned cancer expert and hematologist is co-initiator of the world's largest cancer database „Onkopedia“, which offers a wide range of treatment recommendations for people with cancers online and relies exclusively on scientifically verified information.

Blood cancer patients are spared chemotherapy
The treatment of cancers with the help of arsenic is in principle not a new idea, but such procedures have taken only isolated entry into the cancer therapy, defying several positive studies. An exception is the treatment of certain forms of blood cancer based on arsenic. According to the experts, arsenic trioxide and a vitamin A derivative make it possible to treat the disease successfully and in a much shorter time than before. In addition, the patient would be spared conventional chemotherapy with its sometimes massive side effects. The chemotherapeutic agents would have been in the recent treatment of leukemia often a long-lasting suppression of blood formation and occurring infections were often life-threatening, explained Prof. Ehninger. The new therapy offers clear advantages here.

Remarkable healing success through the arsenic therapy
The German-Italian research team had tested the use of arsenic trioxide in 160 patients with promyelocytic leukemia. The result was convincing. „All patients became disease free“, says Prof. Ehninger. After just six months, treatment success had come to an end, while conventional chemotherapy would have taken around two and a half years. Even three years after treatment, the healing rate was still 95 percent according to the researchers. The survival rate, which also included relapses, was 98 percent. Side effects, such as arsenic poisoning, did not occur as part of the treatment because the dose administered was minimal. Also, arsenic trioxide may cause renal and hepatic impairment at higher doses, which has not been observed in the patients. In addition, there is a very low probability of cardiac arrhythmias, „but the patients are monitored for this“, explained Prof. Ehninger.

Arsenic suitable for the treatment of various cancers?
This extremely positive balance of the blood cancer therapy based on arsenic, has also convinced physicians such as the Director of Internal Medicine at the University of Cologne, Professor Michael Hallek. He has already taken the combined therapy for the treatment of patients with promyelocytic leukemia in Cologne. „For us, the results are reason enough to change our behavior“, stressed the leukemia expert to the „dpa“. Through the combined use of arsenic trioxide and the vitamin A derivative, the prognosis for promyelocytic leukemia improves significantly. However, the novel method can not be used in other forms of blood cancer. Further studies are needed to explore the possibilities of arsenic in cancer therapy, explained Prof. Ehninger. The area of ​​application may be significantly larger than previously assumed. For example, US researchers have in the journal „Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences“ (PNAS) has published a study that suggests ways to treat certain brain tumors with arsenic variants. (Fp)

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Picture: Gerd Altmann, Pixelio