A social media post is circulating with the claim that a new medication called ‘Emotif Markilet’ (इमोटिफ मार्कीलेट in Hindi) has been discovered for the treatment of blood cancer and is being offered free of charge at the Yashoda Hematology Cancer Institute in Pune. Let’s investigate the veracity of this information.
Claim: ‘Emotif Markilet’ is a cure for blood cancer, which is available for free at Yashoda Hematology Cancer Institute in Pune.
Fact: The original name of this tablet or drug is ‘imatinib mesylate’, which is used in the treatment of certain types of blood cancers. This drug has greatly improved outcomes in patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia, a blood cancer. Medicines are given to the patient depending on the type of cancer, and not all types of cancer can be cured with the same medicine. There are many types of blood cancer, and imatinib mesylate is used to treat some of them. According to the Adyar Cancer Institute, this drug is available all over India. Hence, the claim made in the post is Misleading.
Searching the internet about the drug ‘Emotif Markilet’, some posts (here and here) with similar information were found. According to them, a drug called ‘imitinef mercilet’ cures blood cancer and is given free by Adyar Cancer Institute in Chennai.
However, the Adyar Cancer Institute has issued a notice stating that this is a misleading message. The message said, “It has been noticed that an information is being circulated through the internet as emails and as face book posts regarding the availability of a certain medicine called ‘Imitinef mercilet’at the Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai. …….We want to make it clear that this is a misleading message being circulated. We believe that the drug name mentioned is a distortion of the drug called ‘imatinib mesylate’, which is a drug used to treat a type of blood cancer called ‘chronic myeloid leukemia’. This drug is available all over India and is being prescribed at all Cancer Centers and is not exclusive to the Cancer Institute, Adyar, Chennai.”
Imatinib Mesylate is a tablet/drug mainly used in the treatment of ‘Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia’. Once the patient is diagnosed with this disease, this medicine is used to prevent it from progressing to an advanced stage. Imatinib reduces the production of abnormal white blood cells.
Speaking to the Times of India about the ‘Imitinef Mercilet’ related messages, Hematologist Sameer Melinkeri called it spam. In a press conference regarding ‘Imitinef Mercilet’ in 2015, Dr Vishal Rao (Consultant, Head and Neck Surgery, HCG Cancer Care in Karnataka) said that there is no cure for all types of cancer anywhere in the world.
A user on the Practo website asked if the tablet could cure blood cancer. Dr. Kaushal Yadav, a verified doctor by Practo, said, any medicine is given based on the specific symptoms of the cancer. He said that there is no single medicine for all cancers.
Based on all this, it can be concluded that ‘imatinib mesylate’ is not a cure-all wonder drug for all types of blood cancers. The post says that this drug is available at Yashoda Hematology Clinic in Pune. We called the numbers given in the post to find out about this, but they did not work. To learn about the types of cancers, see here and here. More information about imatinib mesylate can be found here and here.
Finally, imatinib mesylate tablet does not cure all types of blood cancer; it is mostly used to treat a type of blood cancer called ‘Chronic Myelogenous Leukaemia’.
