Vidaza resistance

[Birgitta-A]

Hi All,
Now reseachers have found that increased expression of BCL2L10 is linked to Vidaza resistance. Overexpression of this gene has been shown to suppress cell apoptosis (programmed cell death).

Perhaps they now will start looking at the gene BCL2L10 before they start Vidaza treatment in the same way as they look for the chromosome aberration del5q before they start treatment with Revlimid.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22577154
Kind regards
Birgitta-A

[Neil Cuadra]

This is good news, even though it could be used to rule out Vidaza as a promising treatment for many patients, because it can let those patients avoid a treatment that is less likely to work and let them move on to more promising treatment choices. Conversely, a low or normal BCL2L10 level can indicate a better-than-average chance of a response to Vidaza. Both of these discriminations can therefore increase the success rate of Vidaza treatment across all MDS patients.

It's interesting that BCL2L10 is found to be higher than normal in MDS patients, even those who will respond to Vidaza. They report anecdotal evidence that a higher BCL2L10 level in a patient who is responding to Vidaza treatment is evidence that the patient is becoming resistant to that treatment, so flow cytometry during Vidaza treatment may produce indications of when to stop treatment.

The full PDF of this article can be downloaded from here.

An aside for the curious: This page explains how to pronounce the word apoptosis. The second 'p' is silent.

[slip up 2]

How does one get tested for this....my spouse had a great response from Vidaza for about 6 months...he was started again about 2 months ago with Vidaza & Revlimid combo...what a mess with an infection...never to be found...in hospital for a few days.
Thanks
K

[Neil Cuadra]

I don't know how soon research like this will affect existing practices, but flow cytometry is just a blood test that the doctor can order. Flow cytometry is an ingenious technique, an alternative to having technicians examine cells manually. Here is a diagram of how it works.