Professor of Medicine

Chief, CML Section

Department of Leukemia

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center

Houston, Texas

Jorge Cortes, MD, is deputy chair and professor of medicine in the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston Texas where he directs the CML Program. Dr. Cortes received his medical degree in 1986 from the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City, and has been at MD Anderson Cancer Center since 1991.  Dr. Cortes, whose clinical interest focus on new drug development and the management of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes, acute and chronic leukemias, and myeloproliferative disorders has authored over 400 peer-reviewed medical publications.  He has received numerous awards including the Faculty Scholar Award from MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2003, the Annual Celgene Young Investigator Achievement Award for Clinical Research in Hematology in 2005, The Dr. John J. Kenny Award from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in 2006, the Service to Mankind Award from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society in 2007, and the Otis W. and Pearl L. Walters Faculty Achievement Award in Clinical Research from MD Anderson Cancer Center in 2007. Dr. Cortes is chief editor of Current Hematological Malignancies Reports and Clinical Leukemia and serves in the Editorial Board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology, Leukemia, Clinical Cancer Research, Leukemia and Lymphoma and the American Journal of Hematology.

Francisco Cervantes

Francisco Cervantes is senior consultant at the Hematology Department of the Hospital Clínic, in Barcelona, Spain, and associate professor at the University of Barcelona. His main scientific interest is the study of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and the Ph-negative chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), mainly their natural history, prognosis, biology, and treatment. As a result of the activity in this field, he has published more than 190 articles in peer-review international journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Blood, Journal of Clinical Oncology, Leukemia, British Journal of Haematology, Experimental Hematology, Haematologica, Cancer, Oncogene, Seminars in Oncology, and the European Journal of Haematology. In the CML field,Dr. Cervantes contributed to the elaboration of Sokal’s score, is a coauthor of the publications of the IRIS study, which established imatinib as first-line treatment for CML, has participated in the introduction of the second-generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors for patients resistant to imatinib, as well as in the authorship of the European LeukemiaNet recommendations for the treatment of CML. His more recent contributions in the field of the MPNs have been the elaboration of the new prognostic classification of primary myelofibrosis on behalf of the International Working Group for Myelofibrosis Research and Treatment, as well as several studies on the role of leukocyte and platelet activation in the thrombosis of MPN patients. At local level, he is the national coordinator of the CML studies within the collaborative PETHEMA Spanish group. Dr Cervantes is a member of the American Society of Hematology, the European Hematology Association, the International Working Group for Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Research and Treatment, the European Leukemianet, and the Spanish Society of Hematology.

International Standardisation for BCR-ABL RQ-PCR in CML

How close are we to achieving the ultimate goal of global standardization
for BCR-ABL measurement by RQ-PCR in CML?

Over recent years various studies have demonstrated that serial analysis of BCR-ABL mRNA levels by real-time quantitative PCR (RQ-PCR) accurately reflects the level of leukemic inhibition induced by therapy and provides an effective monitoring strategy for patients with CML.

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Dr. Druker is director of the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, JELD-WEN Chair of Leukemia Research at Oregon Health & Science University, and investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Upon graduating from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine in 1981, Dr. Druker completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Barnes Hospital, Washington School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. He then trained in oncology at Harvard's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Dr. Druker then returned to the lab to begin his research career studying the regulation of the growth of cancer cells and the practical application to cancer therapies. He developed 4G10, an anti-phosphotyrosine antibody that was an essential reagent to scientists at Novartis in their kinase inhibitor drug discovery program. In collaboration with Novartis, his laboratory performed pre-clinical studies that were instrumental to the development of Gleevec (imatinib), a drug that targets the molecular defect in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). After completing a series of preclinical studies, Dr. Druker spearheaded the highly successful clinical trials of imatinib for CML. Imatinib is currently FDA approved for CML, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GIST) and five other cancers.

His role in the development of imatinib and its application in the clinic have resulted in numerous awards for Dr. Druker, including the AACR-Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Award, the Warren Alpert Prize from Harvard Medical School, the American Society of Hematology's Dameshek Prize, the Lance Armstrong Foundation's Pioneer of Survivorship Carpe Diem Award, the American Cancer Society's Medal of Honor, the Kettering Prize from General Motors Cancer Research Foundation, the David A. Karnofsky Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the Robert-Koch Award, and the 2009 Lasker-DeBakey Award for Clinical Medical Research. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2003, the American Association of Physicians in 2006, and the National Academy of Sciences in 2007.

GIPAP, historical perspective and current objectives

Since early 2002, the Glivec International Patient Assistance Program (GIPAP) has provided a bridge to Glivec access for CML patients from 80 countries in Latin America, Africa, Asia Pacific and Eastern Europe. Developed and sponsored by Novartis and launched just a few months after the drug received FDA approval, the program has provided unprecedented access to state of the art treatment in so-called developing countries almost simultaneously with the Western World. As a result, for the past eight years more than 1,000 hematologists and 30,000 CML patients in developing countries have been able to benefit from access to Glivec treatment.

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