New Drug Approach Boosts Survival in Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia Patients

Relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a form of blood cancer, has a very poor prognosis due to resistance to anti-cancer drugs and the frailty of the patient’s organ functions. Allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation, a type of anti-tumor immunotherapy that can have severe toxic effects, is frequently performed on patients who are difficult to treat with chemotherapy. However, relapse remains a common issue (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
How I treat refractory and relapsed acute myeloid leukemia

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New Drug Combination Shows Promise in Treating Relapsed/Refractory AML

A team from the Osaka Metropolitan University Graduate School of Medicine has developed an innovative strategy using a new drug combination that has shown significant anti-cancer effects with mild toxicity in patients with relapsed/refractory AML. Additionally, detailed immunological studies revealed that the new drug enhances anticancer activity by altering immune cells.

In correspondence published in the Nature-affiliated Blood Cancer Journal, the researchers report on their clinical observational study using venetoclax in combination with azacitidine as the treatment for 12 patients with AML who relapsed after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation.

Venetoclax is an oral medication developed by AbbVie and Roche that was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in October 2020 for AML. It has shown promising results for older patients with untreated AML in promoting the death of cancer cells by inhibiting a regulator protein known as BCL-2.

Improved Survival Rates with Venetoclax Combination Therapy

The OMU researchers’ study showed markedly better survival rates after one year for the venetoclax combination therapy group than a control group of 61 patients, at 66.7% to 27.3%. They also showed in the immunological study that the alterations of immune cells induced by venetoclax had enhanced the anti-tumor activity.

“This study demonstrates that novel therapy can improve the prognosis of relapsed/refractory acute myeloid leukemia through both clinical and basic approaches. This therapy can be applied to more patients because of the reduction of the treatment burden,” proclaimed Dr. Mitsutaka Nishimoto, the corresponding author. “We hope this will lead to the development of safer, more effective treatments.”

Reference:

1. How I treat refractory and relapsed acute myeloid leukemia - (https://ashpublications.org/blood/article-abstract/143/1/11/498663/How-I-treat-refractory-and-relapsed-acute-myeloid?redirectedFrom=fulltext)

Source-Eurekalert