Nilotinib cancer drug, molecular model. Ball-and-stick model of the cancer drug, nilotinib (C28.H22.F3.N7.O). Nilotinib is a drug used for the treatment of chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML), a cancer of the blood. It is a BCR-ABL inhibitor that works by blocking a tyrosine kinase enzyme. It is similar to another CML drug, imatinib, but has a greater potency and is used for drug-resistant forms of CML. It has been approved for use in the USA since 2007. Atoms are represented as spheres with colour coding: hydrogen (light blue), carbon (grey), oxygen (red), nitrogen (dark blue), and fluorine (green).