A leukemia expert says the treatment Toronto Maple Leaf Jason Blake is taking should allow him to live a normal and productive life and continue his hockey career.
Blake announced Monday he had Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) and that he planned to continue his hockey career despite the diagnosis. CML is a rare form of leukemia that causes the hyperproduction of white blood cells and inhibits the development of red blood cells.
Dr. Jeff Lipton, a leukemia specialist at Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, says about 500 cases of CML are diagnosed every year in Canada and the type of treatment now available enables those to overcome the disease.
"The majority of people get on with their daily life whether they're a labourer or a high stress banker," Lipton told Canada AM.
The treatment Blake would be undergoing, said Lipton, is called targeted therapy.
"Scientists have now got to the point where they can understand the biology behind leukemia and specifically designed a drug that is targeted at the genetic defect associated with this," Lipton said.
"So it's like using a smart bomb versus an atom bomb, like traditional chemotherapy."
While the targeted therapy method does not yet have a decade of information to follow up on regarding its success, Lipton said he has seen its effects on the patients he has treated.
"I haven't lost a person with this disease in the last five or six years versus 10 years ago, (when) 50 per cent of the people would be dead within four years," Lipton said.
According to various reports, Gleevec is the drug that Jason Blake is taking. The drug inhibits the overproduction of white cells and assists in the production of red cells.
The treatment represents an advance in tackling CML. Ten years ago, the first method of treatment would have been a bone marrow transplant which would involve having to track down a suitable donor.
A second option would have been to use a self-injected drug. While this drug worked for about 20 per cent of patients, for others, it had serious side effects on the quality of their lives.
Blake continued playing hockey Tuesday night as he took to the ice with the Maple Leafs in their 7-1 defeat against the Carolina Hurricanes. There are some side effects to the treatment that Blake is taking, but playing hockey may actually assist the Maple Leafs player.
"One of the side effects people do get with this disease is muscle cramping and the best thing for that is exercise. I think he'll get enough off that over the next few months," Lipton said.
