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After several years of painstaking research,
Elion finally developed a compound that interfered
with the replication of leukemia cells. Although it
was too toxic to be truly effective, it showed that
she was on the right track. She continued to
experiment, eventually formulating and testing over
100 purine compounds.
Finally, in 1950, Elion synthesized
6-Mercaptopurine, or 6-MP. 6-MP caused complete
remissions in children with leukemia, but a relapse
invariably followed. The excruciating highs and
lows of watching children improve and then die
drove Elion to work even harder to refine the drug.
As she studied the metabolism of 6-MP over the next
years, she discovered that much of it was destroyed
in the body, and she was able to use that knowledge
to improve the workings of the drug. When 6-MP was
combined with later medications, approximately 80%
of child leukemia patients would be cured; prior to
6-MP, half of all children with acute leukemia died
within a few months.
Elion was elated. "What greater joy can you
have than to know what an impact your work has had
on people's lives?" she asks. "We get
letters from people all the time, from children who
are living with leukemia. And you can't beat the
feeling that you get from those children."
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