Researchers detect a loophole in chronic lymphocytic leukemia treatment

(Rockefeller University Press) A team of researchers in Italy and Austria has determined that a drug approved to treat chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) may be less effective in a particular subset of patients. The study, which will be published Jan. 4 in the Journal of Experimental Medicine, reveals that ibrutinib has a diminished capacity to delocalize and kill tumor cells expressing an adhesive protein called CD49d, but combining ibrutinib treatment with drugs that block CD49d activation cou...