Coming Soon, Drug Combo Therapy to Effectively Fight Against Blood Cancer

Scientists at VCU Massey Cancer Center have tested the safety and effectiveness of a new therapy in a successful Phase I clinical trial, which means that a novel drug combination to treat patients with relapsed or refractory blood cancers could be on the anvil. The study determined the maximum tolerated dose of a combination of the drugs Bortezomib and Alvocidib with acceptable side effects, paving the way for a Phase II clinical trial to test the safety and effectiveness of the new therapy.

The trial included 16 patients who had either indolent (non-aggressive) non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma or multiple myeloma. After they received the treatments over a 21-day cycle, there were two complete responses, meaning that all detectable traces of the cancer were gone, and five partial responses.

"This is one of the first trials of its type in which two targeted agents which interfere with two very different biological processes are being combined to treat patients with blood cancers," says co-investigator Steven Grant, associate director for translational research.

The study has been reported in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.

Source-ANI