Title: Rapid and Complete Remission of the Cancer Idiopathic Hypereosinophilia (HES) with Gleevec: the First World Case Report, Medscape

I believe this is the first published case in the world literature of this medication being used for this serious cancer. A cancer that often kills those affected.

Basically, one of the blood cells, eosinophils, are made in massive numbers and clog up the blood all over the body as they release toxins.

This extensive case discussion with extensive references was self funded by the authors.

We used very low starting doses and found it caused a complete remission initially of both eosinophils and ECP, one of the toxins released by eosinophils. However, more recently the medication has not decreased ECP toxins at modest doses, but has kept the eosinophils under control. The patient will likely try higher doses of Gleevec to see if the ECP level can be made to fall into the acceptable range as it did initially.

It may be that other treatments will be needed to stabilize more completely eosinophil degranulation. The patient was able to come off very serious chemotherapy agents that he had to inject or take daily -- interferon and hydroxyurea. A study in the Lancet following our initial publication offers 5 more patient experiences. The helpful, kind, and competent author, GJ Gleich, formerly with the Mayo Clinic, uses higher doses than we used initially.

Full-text Article: Schaller JL, Burkland GA. Rapid and Complete Control of Idiopathic Hypereosinophilia with Imatinib Mesylate. Medscape General Medicine. September 7, 2001 Available at: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/408170.