[Clinical trial of bestrabucil (KM 2210) in hematopoietic malignancies]

Thirteen patients with hematological neoplasms were treated with Bestrabucil (100 mg/day po, total dose 700-9,900 mg), which is the benzoate of an estradiol-chlorambucil conjugate. The diseases from which they suffered consisted of T-cell leukemia (3), lymphoma (3), myeloma (5) and essential thrombocytosis (2). Although this drug was less effective against myeloma, the other diseases were more or less relieved with this medication. That is, Bestrabucil was effective in all three patients with T-cell leukemia, both with essential thrombocytosis and two of the three with lymphoma. It is most interesting that adult T-cell leukemia (ATL) cells decreased remarkably with Bestrabucil, along with the disappearance of several symptoms (bone pain, hypercalcemia etc.). The main side effects during this medication were mammary pain (eight of 13 patients, 62%), anorexia (five of 13 patients, 39%) and loss of libido (three of 13 patients, 23%), but neither severe myelosuppression nor hepatorenal dysfunction was induced.