Sustained complete remission of CLL associated with the use of a Chinese herbal extract: case report and mechanistic analysis

Battle, Traci E.; Castro-Malaspina, Hugo; Gribben, John G.; Frank, David A.

doi:10.1016/S0145-2126(03)00009-2

« Previous Next »Leukemia Research
Volume 27, Issue 9 , Pages 859-863, September 2003

Sustained complete remission of CLL associated with the use of a Chinese herbal extract: case report and mechanistic analysis

Traci E. Battle
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
Hugo Castro-Malaspina
- Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
John G. Gribben
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
David A. Frank
- Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 44 Binney St., Boston, MA 02115, USA
- Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA
- Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-617-632-4714; fax: +1-617-632-6356.

Received 3 October 2002; accepted 20 December 2002.

Abstract

We report the case of a man with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who, in the absence of cytotoxic chemotherapy, began taking a Chinese herbal extract. Shortly thereafter, he experienced a steady decline of his lymphocytosis and adenopathy, and he remains in remission now over 10 years later. The herbal extract inhibited the survival of primary CLL cells under in vitro culture conditions. However, it did not inhibit the activation of Akt or MAP kinase, nor did it inhibit the serine phosphorylation of STAT1. Thus, through an as yet unknown mechanism, this extract appears to exert pro-apoptotic effects in CLL.

Abbreviations: ALC, absolute lymphocyte count, CLL, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, FBS, fetal bovine serum, STAT, signal transducer and activator of transcription, WBC, white blood cell