Copied from The Halifax Herald, May 11, 2000: Experimental treatment attacks leukemia like 'heat-seeking missiles' By Clare Mellor / Health Reporter Last Wednesday, Dwight MacDonald learned he had only weeks to live. But the next day, leukemic cells that had invaded more than 90 per cent of his blood began disappearing because of an experimental cancer drug called Hum195. The 53-year-old Head of St. Margarets Bay resident is the first acute myeloid leukemia patient in Atlantic Canada - perhaps the first in Canada - to try the drug, which destroys leukemic cells while leaving healthy ones alone. "I started the first four-hour infusion of the drug last Thursday,and within 24 hours later (the leukemic cells) had dropped by 50 per cent," he said Wednesday from his bed at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax. "I was amazed and encouraged." The cancer cells in his blood have now diminished by more than 75 per cent; doctors hope the drug will soon attack cancer cells in his bone marrow, where they are manufactured. "I was glad I was getting the opportunity to try the drug, but I didn't expect any great results from it," said Mr. MacDonald, who has had four failed courses of chemotherapy in the past eight months. He said he and his wife, Marilyn Purdy, had given up hope. "We were down pretty low. We knew the end was very, very close." So far, the drug has been used on only about 30 patients worldwide. Luckily, Theradex, the New Jersey company that makes the drug, recently selected the QEII to be part of its clinical trials, said Dr. Donna Forrest, a hematologist at the hospital. "We didn't have anything further to offer Dwight and, frankly,he would have died of his disease if this would have been six months ago," she said. The drug is called a monoclonal antibody which, when injected into the body, recognizes antigens, or cell markers that are specific to acute myeloid leukemia cells. "They act like heat-seeking missiles. These antibodies will only bind or stick to the cells where they see that antigen ... then the (cancer cells) are eliminated by the body's own immune system," Dr. Forrest said. "The liver and the spleen of the patient gobble up those antibody-coated cancer cells." Mr. MacDonald received four courses of the drug over four days. The therapy will be repeated at two-week intervals. "It's amazing. He's cleared out a huge amount of the leukemic cells," Dr. Forrest said. Tests will be done in about 30 days to see whether the drug is working in the marrow. Chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease 13 years ago left Mr. MacDonald susceptible to leukemia. Cancer will later develop in about three per cent of chemotherapy patients because the drugs damage healthy cells as well as cancerous ones, Dr. Forrest said "This drug (Hum195) is only attacking the cancer cells so it doesn't have effects on any other cells in the body. It's novel. It's quite remarkable," the doctor said. Mr. MacDonald, a grandfather, says he and his wife are daring to hope one more time. "We've been up and down like a roller-coaster the last eight months," he said. "Marilyn and I had a long talk Saturday night and decided to get our emotions back up there one more time. We have friends and family pushing for us so we said, 'Let's do our part.'" ============================= Many of the experimental drugs are working very well! NEVER GIVE UP HOPE! Muriel M. Davidson <davidson3542@home.com>