Attacking Leukemic Stem Cells: Parthenolide

Today I read about a $1.7 million grant awarded to a team of scientists at the James P. Wilmot Cancer Center at the University of Rochester Medical Center for the development of new therapies attacking leukemic stem cells. And one of the substances under examination is parthenolide, which seems to be the first single agent that can attack leukemia at its roots. Hurray! A water-soluble form of parthenolide is expected to enter Phase I clinical trials later this year. I don’t have any time to pursue the topic any further today, but I will be watching it closely. And in the meantime I guess I will be ordering some parthenolide! Oh, this is very exciting!

3 Comments

  1. This IS exciting! I ran across an article saying that the doctors at the Univ of Roch have opined that it would not be possible for a cancer patient to take enough feverfew to get the needed amount of parthenolide. The implication was that other side effects would interfere. So they’re working on a way to get more into a person’s system.

    But I wonder if they would have said the same thing about curcumin. 🙂

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