[Greg H]

Originally Posted by Birgitta-A

The epigenetic drugs like Vidaza and Dacogen (hypomethylating drugs) or Zolinza (HDAC = histondeacetylase inhibitors) are now in trials for many types of cancer not only for MDS/AML. Then many MDS patients receive "strong" chemo for example if they will get a SCT.

Hey Birgitta!

I read a article the other day about trial of Vidaza and Dacogen for other cancers. I gathered from the article that these drugs were once used as "strong chemo" and proved to be too strong. Then someone got the bright idea of using a much reduced dose for MDS. Since that worked, the researchers are now trying the reduced dose idea with other cancers.

And, of course, some folks still get induction chemotherapy for MDS (even outside of transplant), though I gather that is increasingly uncommon.

What I was trying to get at in my flawed post was exactly the distinction between the epigenetic drugs and the cytotoxic drugs (without using too many big words). My thinking is that the cytotoxic drugs actually reduce the population of cancer cells or clones, whereas the epigenetic drugs don't eliminate them, but simply change the way they are functioning. Take away the drug, and the malfunction returns. Does that seem right to you?

Take care!

Greg