Tag Archives: interferon

Foods that boost your immune system

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1. Sweet potatos

The lining of your nose is your first defence against airborne bugs. Keep it healthy with a dose of vitamin A from this betacarotene-rich root sweet potato.

2. Brazil nuts

Boost your immune system’s killer cells. These selenium-rich nuts enhance your white blood cells’ ability to quash viruses.

3. Probiotic yogurt

Make friends with your gut by eating bacteria-loaded yogurt. The more friendly bacteria living in your system, the less room for the harmful sort.

4. Kiwi fruit

The ultimate infection-fighting fruit, kiwi are packed with vitamin C, which increases the levels of interferon, an antibody that protects cells against viruses.

Kiwi fruit

Kiwi fruit

5. Oat cakes

Too little shut-eye makes you three times more likely to catch a cold. Snacking on tryptophan-rich oat cakes before bed will help you sleep.


6. Pineapples

Feeling down? A low-mood can reduce immunity. Pineapple is packed with an amino acid needs to make the happy hormone serotonin.

7. Mackerel

Rich in omega-3s that help your white blood cells seek and destroy bacteria, and strengthen your body’s main organ of defence – your skin.

Mackerel

Mackerel

8. Garlic

Garlic keeps viruses and bacteria at bay. It’s rich in sulphur-containing compounds that stimulate infection-fighting cells.

9. Hummus

Chickpeas are high in the essential amino acid lysine, which is vital after a gym session as it helps tissue repair as well as producing antibodies.

Imatinib and leukemia treatment

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Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) who have not responded to interferon treatments, experience long-term benefits when they switch to the targeted drug imatinib, according to a new study.

The finding indicates that imatinib is the treatment of choice for these patients.

Imatinib, a drug that blocks the protein made by a particular cancer-causing gene, has revolutionized the treatment and prognosis of patients with CML.

Now up to 93 percent of patients who take the drug as initial therapy for CML survive at least eight years, whereas prior to imatinib, patients survived an average of only three to six years.

While imatinib is now the standard drug given after a diagnosis of CML, approximately 15,000 to 20,000 patients in the United States may have started taking imatinib after failing to respond to the previous standard drug for CML, interferon.

Leukemia cells

Leukemia cells

Like patients who now take imatinib as initial therapy for their cancer, these patients seem to respond well to imatinib, at least in the short term; however, little is known about their long-term prognosis.


To investigate, Hagop Kantarjian, MD, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and his colleagues analyzed 368 CML patients from their institution who started taking imatinib after failing to respond to interferon.

The team estimated that 68 percent of patients survived for at least 10 years. Previous research indicates that only 20 to 30 percent of patients who do not respond to interferon therapy and have no access to imatinib survive this long.

According to the authors, these findings suggest that most patients can benefit from imatinib after unsuccessful interferon treatments, and they do not have to consider other therapeutic options.