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Brian Vastag

JAMA. 2001;286:1306.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) report that 11 of 13 patients with hairy cell leukemia had complete remissions and two had partial remissions after treatment with a recombinant immunotoxin. The NCI scientists created this "smart bomb" by fusing an antibody to a bacterial toxin. The molecule homes in on and quickly kills hairy leukemia cells.

The investigators say the results are particularly impressive because the patients, all of whom had failed previous chemotherapy, were treated in a phase 1 clinical trial. "We expected that some patients would respond to the treatment," said Ira Pastan, MD. "But we didn't imagine in our wildest dreams that almost all of the patients would go into complete remission."

Pastan said the immunotoxin, called BL22 and developed with Robert Kreitman, MD, and David FitzGerald, PhD, is licensed to AlbaPharm, Inc, of Rockville, Md, which is planning a larger trial with the . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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