t h e Ph i ladelphia Chromosome and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic Level

Publishes may 2013 $25.95 | Hardcover | 978-1-61519-067-6

a summary of the story as told in full in The PhilaDelPhia ChROmOsOme: a mutant Gene and the Quest to Cure Cancer at the Genetic level by Jessica Wapner

1999

Portland, Oregon oncologist Dr. Brian Druker, Gleevec’s most ardent champion, reports that 100% of patients receiving high enough doses responded with lower white blood cell counts.

THEEXPERIMENT

Doctors first recognize symptoms of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), a cancer of the blood that raises white blood cells to deadly levels. Arsenic becomes the prescription of choice for the rest of the 19th century—doing nothing to prolong life.1840

1959

1970

David Baltimore and Howard Temin discover how retroviruses work. Diseases known today to be caused by ret-roviruses include the common cold, some forms of cancer (includ-ing CML), and AIDS.

Scientists develop the banding technique, which reveals the genetic composition of chromo-somes in unprecedented detail.

1971

may 10,

2001

Bud Romine takes 25 milligrams of this new drug, soon to be known as Gleevec, representing the first human use of a drug designed to attack cancer at the genetic level.

Phase I trials of a brand new drug, STI-571, tested on monkeys, dogs, rats, and mice, all with CML, show that attacking CML at its genetic source can lower white blood cell counts.

Scientist George Daley proves the Philadelphia chromosome to be the sole

J. Michael Bishop and Harold Varmus, studying chicken cancer, show that normal genes in every cell have the potential to cause cancer.

First Baltimore and Temin, and then Bishop and Varmus, win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for their work.

1976

1998

19961990

Gleevec so dramatically improves on preexisting treatments that it sets the record for fastest time a drug has ever been approved by the FDA.

It took 31 years of research to verify this

connection.

Not a single patient in the test reported any

serious side effects.

In 45% of patients, the Philadelphia chromosome

disappeared entirely.

1975

1973

Scientist Janet Rowley discovers the complete process behind the genetic anomaly linked to CML, showing that pieces of chromosomes 9 and 22 trade places.

Researchers Peter Nowell and David Hun-gerford discover a mutant gene, christened the Philadelphia chromosome, in CML patients, a finding of little significance at the time but that would change the face of cancer research.

cause of CML in mice, the first time a cancer has ever been linked with total certainty to a single genetic mutation.

1989Je

ssiC

a WaPneR

The same principles behind Gleevec now lead the charge to defeat the genetic sources of other cancers,

including colorectal cancer, kidney cancer, other types of leukemia, lung cancer, and melanoma.

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m)additional source: goldman, Jm. 2010. “chronic myeloid leukemia: a Historical Perspective.” seminars in Hematology 47(4): 302–11.