Well known as poison, arsenic can prolong life of leukemia patients

CHICAGO (AFP) - Well known as a poison that can kill, arsenic also can prolong the lives of patients with a rare form of leukemia, a new study out Saturday found.

"This study shows that even more patients will benefit if we give (arsenic) earlier in the course of treatment," said Dr. Bayard Powell, hematology professor at Wake Forest medical center in North Carolina, and the lead author of the research delivered at the meeting of the American Society of Oncology (ASCO) which brought together 25,000 experts in Chigago.

"The difference in survival rates and relapse rates are great enough to justify including arsenic trioxide in standard first-line treatment" of acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) a rare form of acute myeloid leukemia (AML), Powell argued.

In the Phase Three clinical study of 518 adults with the disease found that in the group of 261 patients who received arsenic along with customary medicines, the survival rate was 86 percent after three years compared to 77 percent for those who had only the standard treatment.