Gemcitabine in hematologic malignancies

Gemcitabine is a pyrimidine analogue that showed significant activity in so lid malignancies. Gemcitabine acts by inhibiting DNA synthesis through chai n termination and ribonucleotide reductase inhibition. During initial phase I and II studies, gemcitabine had a low toxicity profile and was well tole rated as a single agent and in combination therapy. Recently, there has bee n more interest in studying the activity of gemcitabine in hematologic mali gnancies. Gemcitabine demonstrated good activity in refractory Hodgkin dise ase patients, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, and acute le ukemias. There is a preponderance of evidence on the activity of gemcitabin e in vitro in myeloma and leukemic cell lines. The activity of gemcitabine in these disorders will pave the way for incorporating this agent into the early phases of therapy. Curr Opin Oncol 2001, 13:514-521 (C) 2001 Lippinco tt Williams & Wilkins, Inc.