A Study of Ribavirin to Treat M4 and M5 Acute Myelocytic Leukemia

Summary

The purpose of this study is to determine if ribavirin (a drug commonly used to treat hepatitis C) also has activity in the treatment of patients with refractory or relapsed acute myeloid leukemia (AML) of the M4 and M5 subtype.

Timeline

Start

2007-04

Primary completion

2010-02

Completion

2010-02

Publications

• Background Topisirovic I, Guzman ML, McConnell MJ, Licht JD, Culjkovic B, Neering SJ, Jordan CT, Borden KL. Aberrant eukaryotic translation initiation factor 4E-dependent mRNA transport impedes hematopoietic differentiation and contributes to leukemogenesis. Mol Cell Biol. 2003 Dec;23(24):8992-9002. doi: 10.1128/MCB.23.24.8992-9002.2003.
• Background De Benedetti A, Harris AL. eIF4E expression in tumors: its possible role in progression of malignancies. Int J Biochem Cell Biol. 1999 Jan;31(1):59-72. doi: 10.1016/s1357-2725(98)00132-0.
• Background Kentsis A, Topisirovic I, Culjkovic B, Shao L, Borden KL. Ribavirin suppresses eIF4E-mediated oncogenic transformation by physical mimicry of the 7-methyl guanosine mRNA cap. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Dec 28;101(52):18105-10. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0406927102. Epub 2004 Dec 15.
• Background Assouline S, Culjkovic B, Cocolakis E, Rousseau C, Beslu N, Amri A, Caplan S, Leber B, Roy DC, Miller WH Jr, Borden KL. Molecular targeting of the oncogene eIF4E in acute myeloid leukemia (AML): a proof-of-principle clinical trial with ribavirin. Blood. 2009 Jul 9;114(2):257-60. doi: 10.1182/blood-2009-02-205153. Epub 2009 May 11.

Drugs

Indications