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A role for Danazol in chronic lymphocytic leukemia

Leukemia volume 26, pages 1684–1686 (2012)Cite this article

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The clinical management of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients with fludarabine-resistant disease or tumor cells with 17p deletions remains problematic.1 High-dose glucocorticoids (HDGCs) are among the most effective treatment approaches for such patients, as well as elderly patients who cannot tolerate conventional chemotherapy. However, HDGCs are not without significant side effects and are only palliative in nature.2 Identification of nontoxic agents that could improve the therapeutic efficacy of HDGCs would help significantly in managing these patients.

We then examined the effects of Danazol specifically on CLL cells with 17p deletions (Figure 2c, bottom left panel). At a dose of 10 μM, Danazol remained capable of killing such cells, especially in combination with Dex. Compared with CLL cells without this cytotogenetic abnormality, 17p− tumor cells appeared less sensitive to Danazol, with or without Dex, although the differences were not statistically significant (Figure 2c, right panel). Note the results for Figure 2c were obtained with cryopreserved cells and the higher levels of spontaneous death following thawing account for the lower specific death levels in comparison with Figure 2b, which were obtained with fresh tumor cells.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society of Canada (to DS) and a QEII-SST graduate scholarship from the University of Toronto (to ST).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Canada

    S Tung & D E Spaner

  2. Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    S Tung & D E Spaner

  3. Sunnybrook Odette Cancer Center, Toronto, Canada

    D E Spaner

  4. Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

    D E Spaner

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  1. S Tung
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Correspondence to D E Spaner.

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Tung, S., Spaner, D. A role for Danazol in chronic lymphocytic leukemia. Leukemia 26, 1684–1686 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/leu.2011.386

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