Anticancer compound may offer new treatment for sickle cell anemia.

2004 JAN 1 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- SuperGen, Inc., (SUPG) announced that results of a clinical study suggest that the investigational anticancer compound Dacogen (decitabine for injection) is active in treating sickle cell anemia.

The results were published in the peer-reviewed medical journal Blood.

Principal Investigator Yogen Saunthararajah, MD, at the University of Illinois at Chicago led the phase I/II clinical study. The primary objective of the study was to test whether subcutaneously administered Dacogen could safely reactivate fetal hemoglobin.

Eight patients diagnosed with sickle cell anemia and resistant or intolerant to …