Gleevec is heralded as a savior drug for cancer research. Created by the rational drug design model, Gleevec targets the tyrosine kinase enzyme in CML patients.[10] By targeting and binding to the active sites of the cancerous cells, Gleevec denaturizes them, preventing the spread of the disease.[10] Gleevec has been FDA approved to be administered to patients diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia and also patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumors.[6] Although, this treatment has also been proved to aid in other fields of medicine, ranging from treating other types of cancers to delaying tumor growth to therapy for diabetes and even to cancer treatment in pets.[5,6,8,9] However, for Gleevec to have been made other cell targeted drugs had to be made before it. And just as those drugs paved the way for Gleevec, Gleevec is paving the way for even more cancer treatments to be made.
Introduction and Background
The official war on cancer began when President Richard Nixon declared that this was the next big thing in the history of the United States. He compared the battle and potential cure of cancer to the process of landing on the moon. However, the battle against cancer has proved to be much more difficult. But there is progress being made. In 2003, 556,902 people in the United States died from cancer.[11] However, in 2002, 557,271 people in the United States died from cancer.[11] Even though the difference of deaths was not that great, this was still a giant step in the war on cancer. The drop in total number of deaths marked the first overall drop since 1930.[11] This trend has continued, as the number of overall deaths has continued to drop in the following years.[1] Lung cancer is still the deadliest type of cancer today, with almost 160,000 estimated deaths in the United States every year; colon, breast, pancreatic and prostate are the
