• Pier Paolo Piccaluga, Michela Rondoni, Stefania Paolini, Gianantonio Rosti, Giovanni Martinelli, and Michele Baccarani.
• Institute of Haematology and Medical Oncology L and A Seràgnoli, S. Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, University of Bologna, Molecular Pathology Laboratory, Unit of Hematopathology, Via Massarenti, 9-40138 Bologna, Italy. pierpaolo.piccaluga@unibo.it
• Expert Opin Biol Ther. 2007 Oct 1; 7 (10): 1597-611.

AbstractThe treatment of hematologic malignancies has been based for many years on chemotherapy and possibly, for the more aggressive forms, stem cell transplantation. In 2001, the signal transduction inhibitor 571 (STI571, imatinib mesylate) was reported to have striking effects in chronic myeloid leukaemia patients. Since then, imatinib became the first molecular-targeted agent approved for the treatment of human cancer and was later on demonstrated to be effective in other malignancies, such as Philadelphia positive acute lymphoid leukemia, hypereosinophilic syndromes, gastrointestinal stromal tumours and more recently, systemic mastocytosis and other myeloprolipherative disease-carrying platelet-derived growth factor receptor abnormalities. In this article, the authors review the evidence which led to imatinib approval in the treatment of several of the above mentioned diseases.

67 keywords...

hide…