BMS launches cancer website
pharmafile | July 15, 2009 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | BMS, Cancer, digi
Bristol-Myers Squibb has launched a new website for sufferers of chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), a cancer of the blood.
MyCMLCare.com contains information on symptoms, recommended treatment goals, tests and side effects and is aimed at carers and families as well as patients.
BMS' treatment for CML Sprycel has orphan status in the US and Europe and is the first effective option for the disease in patients who can’t take current gold standard Novartis' Glivec.
Tyrosine kinase inhibitors, of which Sprycel is the first of a new generation, are mentioned on MyCMLCare.com.
Other treatments it talks about include interferon, chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, which it says is "the only treatment that provides a potential cure".
Bristol-Myers Squibb says the reason for developing the site is that many people living with cancer are researching their illnesses online.
It adds that this "can encourage active communication with their physicians".
Patients and carers can register to receive further educational information from the manufacturer.
CML is a slow-growing type of leukaemia in which the body produces an uncontrolled number of abnormal white blood cells.
Pieces of two different chromosomes break off and attach to each other, forming what is called the Philadelphia-positive chromosome.
This in turn contains an abnormal gene called BCR-ABL that signals cells to make too many white blood cells.
The site features a variety of features, such as a disease backgrounder, including the phases and symptoms of CML.
There is also a tracker for treatment milestones and questions that patients should ask their doctors.
It highlights goals that can show the therapy is working, including returning blood counts to normal and eliminating or reducing the cells carrying the Philadelphia chromosome to undetectable levels.
And the site has a section on what happens when patients' leukaemic cells are proved to be resistant to the effects of medication.
There are about 21,500 people are living with the disease in the US, with 4,830 new cases diagnosed last year.
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