JUN 12 2017, 9:37 PM ET
by MAGGIE FOX


Gleevec, the daily pill that turned a killer type of leukemia into a manageable disease, may also help slow the worsening of diabetes, researchers reported Monday.

In a follow up to a 2008 study in which diabetic mice were cured by the drug, a team reports ?modest? effects in adults with type-1 diabetes. This is the type of diabetes often called juvenile diabetes and it?s caused when the immune system mistakenly destroys insulin-producing cells called beta cells.

Tests done in 67 adults with type-1 diabetes showed the drug appeared to boost their body's own production of insulin, Dr. Stephen Gitelman of the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine told a meeting of the American Diabetes Association.

?On average the people that got the medicine used less insulin,? Gitelman told NBC News.

More:
http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health...abetes-n771241