Yogen Saunthararajah, MD — who specializes in hematology and oncology at Cleveland Clinic — led the study which focused on treating a blood cancer called myelodyplastic syndrome using the drug decitabine.
Typically, decitabine is fairly toxic, so researchers tried redesigning the treatment regimen by lowering dosages and administering the injections more often.
Dr. Saunthararajah and his fellow researchers found the redesigned regimen stopped cancer cells from growing while also sparing normal cells, a great first step in treating myelodyplastic syndrome in a less toxic way.
“These results are so striking that I have no doubt that this is going to be an expanding area,” said Dr. Saunthararajah. “It seems likely that we will see more cancers treated this way in the years to come.”
More articles on cancer:
3 in 5 physicians report barriers to make cancer referrals
Study discovers breast cancer patients know surprisingly little about their disease
Cancer death rate down 22% from peak
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