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Cyclophosphamide
Cyclophosphamide is FDA approved to treat several types of cancer, including people who have Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, acute and chronic lymphocytic leukemia, acute and chronic myeloid leukemia, myeloma, and mycosis fungoides. Cyclophosphamide is usually used in combination with other drugs.
Cyclophosphamide may cause a temporary loss of hair in some people. After treatment has ended, normal hair growth should return, although the new hair may be a slightly different color or texture.
Dasatinib
Dasatinib is FDA approved to treat
Remembering Robbie
On Friday, October 20, 1944, Robert “Robbie” Roesler de Villiers was only 16 years old when he died from leukemia. Robbie’s parents, Rudolph and Antoinette, were stricken with grief and frustrated by the lack of effective treatments for what was then considered a hopeless disease. In his memory, the family started a foundation in 1949.
#ASH18: Update on Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy – harnessing the body’s immune system to fight disease – is rapidly becoming a mainstay of cancer treatment. The increasing interest in this field was clear at yesterday’s standing-room only symposium hosted by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in advance of the 60th ASH (American Society of Hematology) Meeting which officially kicks off today here in San Diego. Over the next few days more than 30,000 researchers and others connected to the blood cancers and other blood malignancies will gather to hear the latest data from clinical trials.
Stopping Gleevec to Start a Family
Erin Zammett Ruddy is a magazine journalist and blogger who was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia at age 23. Today, she is a 40-year-old mother of three.
On January 30 I turned 40. The big 4-0! My grandma Adele and I shared a birthday, and she’d be aghast if she knew I was telling all of you my real age right now. Grandma Del was a Radio City Rockette and very glamorous—and she never turned a day over 29, despite living to 85 (sorry, Grandma). But I am damn proud of being 40, newly-formed wrinkles and all.
New CLL Therapy Showing Promise for AML
LLS-funded researcher Anthony Letai, MD, PhD, talks about how his work led to clinical trials of venetoclax for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and a priority review by the FDA, and how these developments could ultimately lead to the first new therapy approval for AML in decades.
An associate professor in medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Letai has been the recipient of several LLS grants in recent years – supported as a Fellow and Scholar, and most recently, receiving Translational Research Program funding.
CAR-T Immunotherapy Showing Positive Results
This week, positive data from a Kite Pharma CAR-T immunotherapy clinical trial was released showing that more than one-third of refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) patients in the study showed no signs of the disease after six months.
Since 2015, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been funding this study through its collaboration with Kite Pharma, a biotechnology company focused on immunotherapy.
Beat AML in the Time of COVID-19: A Powerful New Video
Like many clinical trials across the U.S. and the globe, The Leukemia & Lymphoma’s Beat AML Master Trial has been dramatically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and has had to make adjustments to continue to provide critical treatment to patients who were previously enrolled.
A Groundbreaking Trial

Defining and Redefining a Blood Cancer Diagnosis
Science historian June Goodfield wrote, “Cancer begins and ends with people.”
This Blood Cancer Awareness Month, it’s important to know that The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is on a mission to cure blood cancers and improve quality of life for the nearly 1.7 million people in the U.S. living with or in remission from blood cancer.
LLS is all about people—an organization full of people who are united in the urgent effort to help every person impacted by blood cancer.

Blood Cancer Survivors Find Special Meaning and Connection as Employee Champions of LLS Light the Night Events
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) is proud of our continuing partnership with Gilead and Kite Oncology as the National Presenting Sponsor of Celebration and Community at Light The Night events across the U.S. helping bring people together and raise critical funds to support patients and their families.
Daunorubicin
Daunorubicin is FDA approved for use in combination with other approved anticancer drugs for remission induction in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia (myelogenous, monocytic, erythroid) of adults and for remission induction in acute lymphoblastic leukemia of children and adults. Daunorubicin causes urine to turn reddish in color, which may stain clothes. This is not blood. It is perfectly normal and lasts for only 1 or 2 days after each dose is given. This medicine often causes a temporary and total loss of hair. After treatment with daunorubicin has ended, normal hair growth should return.
Arsenic trioxide
Arsenic trioxide is FDA approved:

Finding Support in Community: Walgreens and LLS Show Up for Blood Cancer Patients
We all need a helping hand sometimes.
Add on a cancer diagnosis and the everyday suddenly feels... different. In many ways, harder.
Targeting kinase-dependent dysregulation of transcription factor control in acute myeloid leukemia
Defining mechanisms of dysregulated gene control are central to understanding cancer and the development of effective therapies. Our research is focused on the mechanisms of gene control dysregulation in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a refractory form of blood cancer that affects both children and adults. Using new methods for manipulating proteins, we are defining essential mechanisms by which AML cells enable cancer-causing gene expression. This work also allowed us to develop new drugs to specifically block this in cancer, but not healthy cells.2018 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Unleashing the Immune System
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded today to two scientists whose groundbreaking work led to the development of a class of immunotherapies called checkpoint inhibitors that work by releasing the brakes on the immune system.
211Astatine-CD123 Radioimmunotherapy for Cancer (Stem) Cell-Directed Treatment of Acute Leukemia
Because acute leukemias are very sensitive to radiation, radioisotopes are ideal payloads to arm antibodies against these difficult-to-cure, aggressive blood cancers. Here, we will develop fully human anti-CD123 antibodies carrying the highly potent alpha-emitter astatine-211 (211At) as a new therapy for acute leukemia.Tretinoin
Tretinoin is an FDA-approved drug that is used to induce remission in patients who have acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL, also known as "M3 AML"), a type of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), with the t(15;17) translocation and/or the presence of the PML-RARa gene and who are intolerant of, refractory to, or have relapsed from anthracycline-based chemotherapy.

Bold goal, bold action
As we observe World Cancer Day, I’m reflecting on my own family’s experience with blood cancer, the children with blood cancer I have had the honor of knowing, and the many individuals and families who have been impacted by a blood cancer diagnosis.
Our work at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has had a positive impact on so many, but we can do even more to accelerate progress for the blood cancer patients we serve.