Karmanos Cancer Institute Researchers Study New Drug Combinations to Treat Childhoo...(ed to treat epilepsy. They found the two...),Health

"We considered an old drug for a new use," Dr. Ge said. "It looks like the increased drug activity or synergy is not due to the transport or delivery of clofarabine, but to enhanced cell death. We were so pleased with the results."

AML afflicts mostly adults -- about 10,000 new cases each year -- and strikes older children. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia usually affects children between the ages of 2 to 5 and is generally easier to treat. Treatment advancements for AML, however, have been less successful.

Dr. Ge said researchers at Karmanos discovered the synergy between VPA and clofarabine only a few months ago, though departmental research has spanned some 15 years in the field of treating childhood leukemias. The current research represents a unique partnership between Dr. Ge, his Karmanos colleagues, and Jeffrey W. Taub, M.D., a pediatric oncologist at Children's Hospital of Michigan, also in Detroit.

Dr. Ge expects that their findings will move into the clinical phase in the next few years. St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Is now conducting its own clinical drug trial studying the combined effects of VPA and cytarabine to treat newly diagnosed AML patients 21 years old and younger.

"This is truly translational research," Dr. Ge said. "We really want to translate what we do in the laboratory to the clinic and hopefully save more lives."

Located in mid-town Detroit, MI, the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute is one of 40 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers in the United States. Caring for more than 6,000 new patients annually on a budget of $216 million, conducting more than 700 cancer-specific scientific investigation programs and clinical trials, the Karmanos Cancer Institute is among the na
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