Novartis' leukemia tablet Gleevec shows increased response rate, decrease in disease progression

By Elaine Rigoli

Tampa, Fla., June 5 - Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. said response rates to Gleevec tablets continue to increase substantially over time while the yearly risk of progression to advanced disease continues to decline the longer patients take the medicine.

Data from the study, the largest clinical trial to date for newly diagnosed adult patients with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in chronic phase, showed the overall survival rate at five years to be 89.4% for patients receiving Gleevec, according to a news release.

This considers deaths from all causes, but only 4.6% of the patients died from causes related to their leukemia, the release said.

Before Gleevec was available, about 50% of patients progressed to the more advanced stages of Ph+ CML after only three to five years, and survival was generally short for those patients.

The results of this phase 3 trial also showed that the number of patients with a complete cytogenetic response increased to 87% from 69% between the first and fifth years of treatment.

Moreover, the yearly risk of progressing to advanced disease continued to decline - to 0.6% in the fifth year.

Located in East Hanover, N.J., Novartis develops prescription drugs.

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