Jennifer Matthews: This is more than a visit to a botanical garden for Amy Baker. It is part of what she calls her leukemic adventure.
Amy Baker: It is not what happens to you, it is how you deal with it.
Jennifer Matthews: Amy was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia or CML. She first took the drug Gleevec.
Dr. Kapil Bhalla: It's a pill you take once a day and actually produces complete remission of this disease.
Jennifer Matthews: But Amy became resistant to Gleevec. Her only option, a clinical trial in Florida, Amy lives in Ohio, so every 28 days, she hops a plane.
Amy Baker: I made up my mind when I was going to do this and I would call it my leukemic adventure.
Jennifer Matthews: Doctor Kapil Bhalla is studying two drugs that are more potent than gleevec. They are AMN107 and Dasatinib.
Dr. Kapil Bhalla: They are making a big difference in the progression of the disease in patients who have developed resistance to Gleevec.
Jennifer Matthews: With this type of leukemia, parts of chromosomes 9 and 22 switch places, creating abnormality called the Philadelphia chromosome.
Dr. Kapil Bhalla: We have a target in this disease.
Amy Baker: You don't lose your hair. You don't get really, really sick.
Jennifer Matthews: And it's working. Before the treatment, Amy's Philadelphia chromosome level was at 90 percent and now it's down to 2.5 percent, a big improvement. Today, she's happily enjoying life and looking forward to fulfilling many other adventures. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.
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