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That changed about a dozen years ago when the first targeted therapy was approved. The drug Gleevec was featured on the cover of Time magazine in 2001 under the headline: “There is new ammunition in the war against cancer. These are the bullets: Revolutionary new pills like Gleevec combat cancer by targeting only the diseased cells. Is this the breakthrough we are waiting for?”

Gleevec was a pill that by targeting a key protein would, essentially, put the cancer into remission. Since then, second generation targeted drugs for CML have come along that can induce a “deep remission” in many patients.

They target a protein — known as a tyrosine kinase — which causes CML cells to reproduce out of control. Gleevec and other drugs known as tyrosine kinase inhibitors are now the standard treatment for CML.

Schepers takes a drug called Tasigna twice a day and said her energy levels returned to near normal soon after she started on it. Prior to that, although she continued with her busy life, Schepers said she was tired, dragging and losing weight. “Something was definitely wrong.”

Bence-Bruckler says trials are getting underway to determine whether some patients can be taken off the drugs that control CML and still remain in deep remission.

I hope that by sharing my story as an example of the incredible treatments available, this can in some small way help bring awareness to the hospital’s work

Some people are even using the term “functional cure” to describe the effects of such drugs on CML, because doctors are unable to find any sign of it in some patients while on the medication. A cure for cancer in the form of a pill? Not yet, but pretty close.