Drug combo treats form of child leukemia

A new drug and the drug Gleevec stopped one-third of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, an aggressive form of leukemia in children, U.S. researchers say. The study, published in the journal Nature, shows the investigational drug RI-BPI, in combination with Gleevec eradicated the cancer in cell and animal studies. Co-senior investigator Dr. Ari Melnick -- director of the Raymond and Beverly Sackler Center for Biomedical and Physical Sciences at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and a hematologist-oncologist at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center -- and colleagues developed RI-BPI. They have shown its potent effects in non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with no toxicity to normal cells. "I am surprised, and extremely glad, to see that RI-BPI has such strong activity in a leukemia," Melnick says in a statement. "This opens up the possibility that the agent will have similar beneficial effects in other tumor types." A clinical trial is being developed to treat children, the researchers say.