Society to celebrate progress at ball

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - The local chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society will be celebrating some successes this weekend at its annual Diamond Ball.

Almost three years ago, Bob Vespucci got some bad news. He was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia - CML. That's the same type of leukemia that News 4 anchor Bob Koop died of. But for Bob Vespucci, the doctors had some good news - a wonder drug named Gleevec. Some of the early research on it was done at Roswell Park.

Dr. Meir Wetzler said, "We were involved in the first study. It was a study that compared patients who were receiving Gleevec to what was known at the time as the standard of care. And what has come out of the study is that Gleevec was the clear winner. Therefore we have Gleevec on the market."

Though Gleevec helped Vespucci, it was not on the market in time for Koop, who succumbed to CML. But when he was ill, Koop tried other experimental treatments, and kept on fighting.

"I'm saying I'm going to beat this, and I'm going to be back in four months being just as much a cantankerous ass that I've ever been," Koop said.

The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society has a courage award named for Koop. And for patients today, they have Gleevec. Patients have to take just one pill a day.

"I feel great," Vespucci said. "I lead a normal life, still work, we go on trips, I do just about anything a normal person would do."

Vespucci even ran a half-marathon in a group organized by his stepson to raise money for leukemia research.

"Some patients don't do well on Gleevec or on the other drugs, and that's why we need to learn what a specific patient's problem is and learn from there, and that's where centers like ours for personalized medicine are very important," said Dr. Wetzler.