Leukemia

"My Sister's Keeper" New Line Cinema In theaters (released June 26) The premise Three-year-old Kate Fitzgerald is diagnosed with promyelocytic leukemia after her mother, Sara Fitzgerald (Cameron Diaz), spots bruises on her back. Despite chemotherapy, her leukemia continues to recur. She requires a bone marrow transplant, but her parents and her brother are not compatible (her doctor says the chance of a match is only 1 in 200).

Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno, head of the six-county Los Angeles diocese, has been diagnosed with leukemia and is undergoing aggressive treatment to fight the disease. The 65-year-old bishop said in an open letter that he had been suffering from what he thought was a bout of pneumonia since March. He underwent further tests after treatment failed to cure the "nagging problem. " Doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital discovered that Bruno had acute monocytic leukemia, a form of blood cancer.

To many of the nation's million people living with a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, Timothy Brown is the Harry Potter of the disease: Like the young wizard who survived Lord Voldemort's wrath, he is the boy who lived. Today, almost 20 years after he became infected, Brown is, essentially, cured. Brown, now 45, is known in medical-journal circles as "The Berlin Patient," a moniker assigned him by a February 2009 case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In a "Brief Report," oncologist Gero Huetter and his colleagues at Berlin's University Hospital described the unique stem-cell transplant of an HIV-infected patient — Brown — who had acute myeloid leukemia, and the remarkable result: Twenty months after the procedure, the virus had not reappeared in Brown's body, even though he was no longer taking antiretroviral drugs.

Christina Blouvan-Cervantes had been battling aggressive leukemia when her blood count plummeted and she landed in the emergency room in Fresno. Her doctors told her a blood transfusion was her only hope. But her faith wouldn't allow her to receive one. So she turned to one of the only doctors who could possibly keep her alive: a committed atheist who views her belief system as wholly irrational. Dr. Michael Lill, head of the blood and marrow transplant program at Cedars-Sinai's Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute, is a last recourse for Jehovah's Witnesses with advanced leukemia.

Episcopal Bishop J. Jon Bruno, head of the six-county Los Angeles diocese, has been diagnosed with leukemia and is undergoing aggressive treatment to fight the disease. The 65-year-old bishop said in an open letter that he had been suffering from what he thought was a bout of pneumonia since March. He underwent further tests after treatment failed to cure the "nagging problem. " Doctors at Good Samaritan Hospital discovered that Bruno had acute monocytic leukemia, a form of blood cancer.

As she received blood transfusions at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center during the last two years, Alta Ray knew the treatment could save her life but didn't know whom to thank. The teacher and single mother of four from South Los Angeles, who was suffering from leukemia, had given blood in the past and knew the drill: Donors remain anonymous. Still, she felt connected to those who helped her. They were not just donating blood but platelets, the part of the blood that aids clotting.

Tom Landry, who took the Dallas Cowboys to five Super Bowls, has been diagnosed with leukemia, and is undergoing chemotherapy. Former quarterback Roger Staubach, who won two Super Bowls with the Cowboys, said Saturday that Alicia Landry, wife of the 74-year-old Hall of Fame coach, said doctors diagnosed the disease Monday. "I talked to Alicia, and she said a blood test showed signs of anemia and that Tom had a form of leukemia," Staubach said.

Three weeks ago, Tarzana resident Judy Schmidt enlisted a local restaurant to help raise money for a cancer-stricken young boy at Wilbur Elementary School. As a result of her efforts, El Torito restaurant in Tarzana will donate 25% of the checks of customers participating in the fund-raiser today, Saturday and Sunday to assist 8-year-old Billy Hale, who was diagnosed with leukemia in 1995.

Raisa Gorbachev, the wife of former Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev, is seriously ill with leukemia and "very weakened" by the disease and chemotherapy, German doctors said. Gorbachev was at her side at the clinic in Muenster, where she has been receiving treatment for an acute form of the blood cancer for 10 days, an official said. "Examinations have shown that Mrs. Gorbachev has acute leukemia," the hospital said in a statement.

Darren Wedertz, a junior at Santa Margarita High School who has been in a coma for nearly a week, has been diagnosed as having leukemia, Msgr. Michael Harris, the school's principal, said Thursday. Wedertz was injured while making a tackle during a junior varsity football game Friday. He lost consciousness and was taken to Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo, where he was listed in serious condition.

Biotech giant Amgen, fresh off mixed earnings, said it will shell out $1.16 billion to broaden its product pipeline by buying fellow drug developer Micromet Inc. Thousand Oaks-based Amgen is already one of the world's premier pharmaceutical firms, but it's saddled with mostly older products, such as anemia treatment Epogen and arthritis medication Enbrel. Its portfolio is facing more competition and high expenses as similar products hit the market, analysts said. Amgen's profit in 2011 fell 20.4% year over year - largely because of higher costs - to about $3.7 billion, or $4.07 a share, the company said after the markets closed Thursday.

Amgen Inc., the world's largest biotechnology company, agreed to buy Micromet Inc. in a $1.16 billion deal to gain an experimental leukemia drug. Investors of Micromet, based in Rockville, Maryland, will get $11 a share, the companies said in a statement today. The acquisition will give Thousand Oaks, California-based Amgen the compound blinatumomab, being tested against two blood cancers, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. While Amgen spends $2.7 billion a year on research and development, the company has "a fairly empty pipeline" and needs to acquire to gain promising new products, said Geoffrey Porges, an analyst for Sanford C. Bernstein in New York.

News came today that singer Etta James is terminally ill with chronic leukemia; the Riverside Press-Enterprise also reports that the 73-year-old is suffering from kidney failure and dementia. Leukemia is a cancer of the blood and bone marrow, where blood cells are produced. When abnormal cells are created they disrupt the function of healthy cells. The disease can be acute or chronic; in acute leukemia, common in children, immature or early blood cells multiply quickly, and immediate treatment is usually necessary.

In a potential breakthrough in cancer research, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have genetically engineered patients' T cells — a type of white blood cell — to attack cancer cells in advanced cases of a common type of leukemia. Two of the three patients who received doses of the designer T cells in a clinical trial have remained cancer-free for more than a year, the researchers said. Experts not connected with the trial said the feat was important because it suggested that T cells could be tweaked to kill a range of cancers, including ones of the blood, breast and colon.

The backdrop for my favorite science-fiction novels, Frank Herbert's "Dune" series, is something called the Butlerian Jihad. Some 10,000 years before the main events of the story take place, humanity rebelled against "thinking machines" — intelligent computers — controlling people's lives. The revolution was sparked because a computer decided to kill, without the consent of any human authority, the baby of a woman named Jehanne Butler. FOR THE RECORD: TSA: In his June 28 column, Jonah Goldberg said Jean Weber was a 95-year-old woman who was mistreated by Transportation Security Administration agents in Florida.

To many of the nation's million people living with a diagnosis of HIV/AIDS, Timothy Brown is the Harry Potter of the disease: Like the young wizard who survived Lord Voldemort's wrath, he is the boy who lived. Today, almost 20 years after he became infected, Brown is, essentially, cured. Brown, now 45, is known in medical-journal circles as "The Berlin Patient," a moniker assigned him by a February 2009 case study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. In a "Brief Report," oncologist Gero Huetter and his colleagues at Berlin's University Hospital described the unique stem-cell transplant of an HIV-infected patient — Brown — who had acute myeloid leukemia, and the remarkable result: Twenty months after the procedure, the virus had not reappeared in Brown's body, even though he was no longer taking antiretroviral drugs.

U.S. regulators said they approved a new cancer drug from Genzyme Corp. for treating a type of childhood leukemia after other therapies have failed. In a statement, the Food and Drug Administration said it approved the drug, Clolar, for treating patients ages 1 to 21 with cases of acute lymphocytic leukemia that have progressed after at least two previous cancer-fighting regimens.

Women who receive chemotherapy for ovarian cancer are 10 to 12 times more likely to develop leukemia than those who only underwent surgery, researchers led by John Kaldor at the International Agency for Research on Cancer in France reported last week in the New England Journal of Medicine. Patients who undergo chemotherapy for Hodgkin's disease are apparently nine to 14 times more likely to develop leukemia than those who receive only radiation, the researchers also reported.

A shortage of the chemotherapy drug cytarabine is threatening the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in children around the country, with some hospitals rationing supplies of the drug and others turning away new patients. Cytarabine is a key ingredient in the drug cocktails given to such children. "Without it, most patients die," Louis J. DeGennaro, chief mission officer of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, told Bloomberg News . "There's really no substitute for cytarabine in those chemotherapy regimens.

Sidney Harman, a philanthropist, polymath and pioneer in high-fidelity sound for homes and cars who tried to resuscitate an icon of American journalism when he bought Newsweek last year, has died. He was 92. Harman died Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., of complications from leukemia, according to a statement from his family on the website of the Daily Beast, which Harman merged with Newsweek in November. He was married to former Democratic Rep. Jane Harman of Venice, who resigned her seat in February to lead the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.