Leukemia can be very different from person to person, even within the same type of cancer. Scientists thought they understood how leukemia begins, but it may be more complicated than we thought.

If certain changes can cause a cell to become cancerous, reversing those changes should return the cell to normal. It may be simple, but it's not easy.

Figuring out the molecular puzzles that can change a healthy cell to a cancer cell would be difficult even if you could watch the process happen.

Traditionally a series of x-rays of all of the major bones in the body are used to detect myeloid myeloma , a process known as a radiographic skeletal survey. Yet in some areas, especially Europe, whole body CT is beginning to gain favor as testing indicates it is a more effective and thorough exam for measuring bone involvement in multiple myelomas , a bone-based form of leukemia. Ask your oncologist about whole body CT scanning for multiple myeloma . A formal comparison between the two imaging technologies was presented at the American Roentgen Ray Society's annual meeting by ...

Drug development is a tricky process, and it's common for pharmaceuticals to flounder initially before their best use is discovered.

Health Canada, the Canadian version of the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA), has issued an alert regarding the medication  REVLIMID ( lenalidomide ) that's used to treat multiple myeloma .

A new drug under development for the treatment of the childhood leukemia T-ALL has had success in the first round of pharmaceutical testing. An experimental new drug known as CAL-130 is a dual enzyme inhibitor, blocking two forms of an enzyme used in the out of control growth involved in leukemia. The drug successfully stopped the enzymes phosphoinositide-3 kinase gamma and delta in testing, effectively stopping cancer growth. Ask your oncologist about clinical trials available to you. Testing of the dual inhibitor took place first in mice, and then again in samples of leuk...

It's a common concept. If one dose works well, then two doses may work even better. This theory was tested recently in patients being treated for chronic myeloid leukemia ( CML ), and it didn't work.

Researchers believe that targeting the cancer gene FLT3 could cure one type of leukemia, and say results from their research explain the failure of several drugs currently used. Scientists studying the genetic relationships involved in acute myeloid leukemia have used the genetic data produced in their research to refine the search for a new drug, and testing of one candidate is underway. Ask your oncologist about clinical trials available to you. The group from the University of California in San Francisco announced that the gene FLT3 was being investigated as a possible target...

Leukemia research has had some of the best results for effective pharmaceutical treatment, with the majority of cancers going into remission. Scientists are now researching how to best attack that remaining stubborn minority of leukemias . As a cell matures, it changes from a very basic, undifferentiated cell to developing characteristics that make it easier to recognize, and susceptible to specialized targeted drugs such as Gleevec ( imatinib ). But cells early in the development process may be unaffected by cancer treatments. Ask your oncologist about beta catenin inhibito...