Targeted therapy for chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) has been shown to be successful in extending patients’ life expectancy by controlling the reproduction of cancerous cells with an oncogene not found in healthy cells, a cancer expert said yesterday on World CML Day.
Hsu Szu-chun (徐思淳), director of the hematology and oncology division at National Taiwan University Hospital, said that the patient who has received targeted therapy for the longest time in Taiwan — 13 years — has nearly no oncogenes in his blood cells. Oncogenes are genes that can potentially cause cancer. The one associated with CML is called the Philadelphia chromosome.
Some women taking targeted medication have to pair it with long-term contraceptives to prevent birth defects. However, a small portion are able to conceive after suspending their therapy temporarily with their doctor’s approval and then resume treatment after delivery, he said.
A woman with two children surnamed Wu (吳) was 29 when she was diagnosed with CML and told she had less than a year to live.
Since undergoing targeted therapy, Wu said she feels she has been given “an extra 12 years of life,” which allowed her to attend her elder son’s kindergarten and junior-high school graduations. She is now looking forward to seeing him graduate from senior-high school in a year.
Targeted drug treatment has changed the lives of many CML patients, Hsu said, adding that 100 to 200 new cases are diagnosed each year in Taiwan.
Most patients diagnosed in the disease’s acute phase die within a year, but targeted therapy can help keep CML in the initial phase for five to 10 years, or longer, Hsu said.
He said that some Asian female patients have reported what they find to be a positive side effect of the treatment: preventing tanning.
The therapy has replaced stem cell transplants using bone marrow or umbilical cord blood and rewritten the treatment guidelines for CML, Hsu said.
Between 30 percent and 40 percent of patients undergoing the therapy have a hard time coping with side effects such as abdominal pain and fluid buildup, or experienced oncogene mutation that rendered the drugs ineffective, he said. This is why the National Health Insurance Administration decided to cover second-generation targeted drugs for future patients and those undergoing treatment, Hsu added.
He said that second-generation drugs can get the disease under control faster and may improve patients’ quality of life, as well as extending their life expectancy.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
CPBL players, cheerleaders and officials pose at a news conference in Taipei yesterday announcing the upcoming All-Star Game. This year’s CPBL All-Star Weekend is to be held at the Taipei Dome on July 19 and 20.
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS