 
It's
in the Blood The new antibody caused tumors to shrink using about one-tenth the comparable dose of Rituxan. Another area of Tuscano's research targets chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare and dangerous cancer that affects 5,000 Americans each year. The cure rate for this disease is about 20 percent, although a bone marrow transplant can increase the odds to between 50 and 65 percent. About 10 years ago scientists discovered an enzyme, bcr-abl, that is the primary genetic abnormality in chronic myeloid leukemia. Brc-abl is part of a class of enzymes known as tyrosine kinases, which regulate cell growth. In people with chronic myeloid leukemia, bcr-abl causes white blood cells in varying levels of maturity to appear in the blood, choking out healthy cells and impairing the delivery of oxygen to organs. Working with Drs. Chong-Shan Sui at UC Davis Medical Center, John Kehrl at the National Institutes of Health and Dr. Owen Witte at UCLA, Tuscano found a protein, germinal center kinase, that binds to bcr-abl. The group's hypothesis is that germinal center kinase helps bcr-abl transform healthy white blood cells into cancerous cells. The study was published in the February 1999 issue of the journal Blood.
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Dr. Joseph Tuscano splits his time between seeing patients in clinic and performing research. |
